Life Among Us
by DrDangles
Summary: The seven, Nico, Thalia and others in a zombie apocalypse. Mortal AU. The story gets darker and more violent in later chapters. First few Chapters are bad but it gets a lot better. Bad grammar and swearing Cover thanks to ArtemisMoonGoddess
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Percy

As I moved along the road, I couldn't help but be worried. My mom had to stay behind with a group of psychopaths while they sent me off on a supply run. They sent me alone of course. They all tried to flirt with my mom, even right in front of me. The worst of them was Gabe. He was the leader of a group of former hunters. My mom joined them because she thought it would be safe.

Safe from the zombies

I agreed with her, until Gabe began to get worse. He would always try to threaten her, and I would get in between. Gabe wasn't scared of me, but he was too lazy to do anything to me. I would always do runs as fast as possible so I can get back to her.

I went into the abandoned Walmart in an attempt to find food. I had gotten a couple of canned beans and left.

On my way back is when my life went to shit.

I got lost and was looking at a map. I ran into a pack of zombies. As I began to drive away, my tires slid and ran into a lamp post. I must've blacked out because the next thing I remember was the car surrounded by them. They were banging on the car. All I could think was "Fuck, fuck, fuck." I tried to climb out the sunroof when I felt a sharp pain in my leg.

I hadn't even noticed a piece of metal sticking out of my thigh. As soon as I noticed it, my leg was on fire. I almost blacked out again when I saw the amount of blood. The only thing that snapped me out of it was the shattering of rear window. They began to climb in.

I looked down and slowly pulled my leg off the jagged edge of the metal. Pain shot through my body. I was there for what felt like hours. I put my hand on the sunroof or support.

_The Sunroof_

That was my way out.

I looked back at my leg, suddenly re-energized. I pulled my knife and began stabbing them as they approached the front seat. It was a hard angle with my right leg being stabbed in all, but eventually I built up enough of a wall of bodies to slow the zombies down. With all the strength I could muster, I got my leg un-stabbed and began hauling myself out of the sunroof.

Once I got on top of the car, I began to really feel the pain in my leg. It was almost limp. I saw a small gap where the zombies weren't. That was my way through. As I pushed my way away from the car, they followed. I could just barely hobble away from them, grunting as I limped through the forest just off the road.

My vision began to tunnel. It didn't take me long before I was on the ground crawling. I looked behind me. The infected were close behind. I almost gave up there when I hear gunshots.

"Get him up now, ill cover you." I saw an Asian guy who was built like a brick shit house pick me up in fireman's carry. Two figures stood behind me shooting infected.

"Leo, give me a hand" said the beefy Asian.

The last thing I remember was hearing a girl's voice yelling "get him to Annabeth. That's his best bet."

Then black


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Annabeth

I sat near the campfire, sharpening my knife. It looked plenty sharp, but it had to be perfect. Plus, anything to get my mind of Piper and Jason helped. They were being really annoying. They tried to be quiet, but I could hear a serious make out session going on. One of them would laugh and the other would shush them in a mocking way. This has been going on for like a half hour. I wish they would just screw and get it over with.

After my knife was sharp enough to cut down a tree with a single swipe, I took out my book.

Say what you want about me, but I'm a bookworm. Fuck the end of the world, I like my books. This one was about Greek mythology. Yeah dorky right **(A/N wink wink). **

I heard a loud moan come from the tent. "Keep it in your pants Grace!" I said. The outline of two middle fingers showed through the tent. I chuckled.

Gunshots. Piper and Jason were out of the tent in a heartbeat.

"Where did the shots come from" Jason asked hurriedly

"West" I replied quickly.

"I don't know where that is."

I gave him you're a dumbass look and pointed left.

"Stay here, I'll go check it out" Jason said

He ran after the sound, leaving me and piper there to watch over the camp. The gunshots stopped. Whoever was firing was an idiot. Their drawing all the zombies towards them. They were a last resort. Maybe it was a last resort.

Piper and I had grown close over the past few weeks. She was annoying at times though. She would always try to set me up with Leo, the only single guy in the camp with us. He was nice and all but he wasn't the kind of guy I want, not like there were many options, but still. He was a clown and can never be serious. He wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Jason and Piper. He was like their little brother. I've grown fond of him though. We do need a clown. He can always lighten the mood when it looks bleak. Like when piper lost her dad. I wasn't around for it, but it was apparently pretty dramatic. Jason would comfort her while Leo would cheer her up.

Hazel came panting through the bushes and I almost stabbed her. She looked like she just sprinted 5 miles.

"Hazel, what happened" Piper asked

"Guy… Forest… hurt…help"

Frank and Leo came through the forest, panting just as hard a Hazel, except they were carrying a black haired kid. He looked about 16 or 17. He was as white as a ghost with a sickly look on his face. His pant leg was soaked red.

"Set him down by the fire. I need light" I said commandingly.

I used my knife and cut off his pant leg. There was a hole through his thigh.

"What the hell happened" I said as I started working on his leg.

"I don't know." Frank wheezed out

"We saw him barely outrunning a few infected" Leo chimed in "I guess you could say he was … legging it"

"Not the time Leo" I said

"Just saying he was…"

"Piper, give me a hand" I interrupted

"Ok" she started to help until she realized. "Wait, where's Jason?"

She had a look of pure horror on her face

"He stayed back to make sure we weren't followed" Hazel replied.

Looking a little more relaxed, she began to help. The kids wound missed the artery, so I could help, but it depended on how much blood he already lost. I kept working for about 5 minutes before there was nothing more I could do. All we could do was wait and see if he regained consciousness.

Jason came through the bushes. "All clear" Piper gave him a hug, and then looked at Hazel, Leo and Frank, pissed.

"What the HELL were you thinking" Jason almost shouted

"Be quiet, they can still hear us." I said bitterly.

"What do you mean? He needed help and we helped him" said frank.

"You could have gotten all of us all killed." Jason said angrily.

"So what we were just supposed to leave him there. What if it was Piper back there or Thalia" Leo asked

It was silent for a moment. I knew Jason had a sister, Thalia, but I never knew what happened to her, and I was too afraid to ask. It was a touchy subject for him.

Leo was the first to speak up. "Look Jason, I'm sorry. That crossed the line, but we don't know if she is dead. She could be…"

Jason shot him a death glare, but it soon receded. "Just… just. I'm going to bed." Jason said.

Leo looked sad. "Jason…" he was ignored.

"We should all get some rest. We are all just tired and hungry. I'll take first watch" I said

Frank protested. "No Annabeth, you look worse than all of us."

I shot her a look and said "You sure you don't wanna try that sentence again." I retorted. Always a klutz that boy is. Frank could tell I wasn't going to let it happen, so he gave up.

"I'll go make sure Jason doesn't kill Leo." Piper said before walking to her and Jason's tent

"It just came out. Damn ADHD." Leo said defensively.

"Just everyone get some sleep ok." No one protested. They all went to their own tents

I set myself up near the fire to stay warm. The next hour I had to myself. It was nice to think and read. I started to hear mumbling. I didn't know where it was coming from. Almost woke the others up until I saw it came from the kid we just saved.

I got closer to hear what he was saying. "_Mom, mom where… where are you_" he sounded weak and delusional. I was about to ignore him when he began to hyperventilate. I had to do something.

"I'm right here sweetheart. It's ok. Just get some rest." I said comfortingly.

"_Ok. Mom, I … I love you._" He said, barely audible. I didn't know what to say. His eyes were slightly open and he still thought I was his mom. He was definitely delusional from the blood loss. It was something in his sea green eyes that made me reply, "I love you too. Now get some sleep."

He rolled over and was back out like a light. Good. The best thing for this kid was rest. Leo leaned out of his tent. Clearly, he saw everything. He said in a mocking tone "your gunna make a great mom."

I replied with a defiant, "Go fuck yourself." He grinned and went back to bed


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Annabeth

I must have dosed off during my watch because the next thing I remember is the sunrise. How could I be so stupid? Anything or anyone could have come into camp. No one else was awake and I wasn't tired anymore so I figured to just relax and wait till everyone was awake.

Then I noticed the black haired kid was gone.

I could see his blanked was nice and folded and the grass where he slept was matted down. I began to freak out. What if he doesn't come back or he could lead his group to us and steal all our shit and kill us. I needed to keep a level head. The last time I freaked out, it wasn't pretty.

That's when I noticed a piece of paper on the folded blanket. It wasn't a full piece. It looked more like a post-it note. I went over to see what it said. "Thank you" was all that was written in smudgy handwriting. I was wondering where he got the pencil and paper when I saw my bag was open. Oh god what did he steal.

I rushed over to take a look. I looked threw it, scared he took the food. All he took was the pencil and paper. I sighed in relief. So at least he's a good guy.

He wasn't going to make it long alone. The wound in his leg will slow him down like crazy. He will get eaten, or robbed or killed. I had to go after him.

What is wrong with me? I never go after people, except my friends, or family. Why was I so inclined to help this kid? All I knew was that I had to go. I took out my knife and left a note in the dirt.

_BRB –A. _hopefully they figure out that "A" stands for Annabeth. I took off.

I had no idea where he went, so I ran in the direction Frank and Leo came in last night. After about 20 minutes I still couldn't find him. I took a break next to a rock. Thinking it was a lost cause.

Something grabbed my hair. I screamed. I pulled out my knife and stabbed it. I heard a groan behind me, 3 more zombies. Gods I'm an idiot. Why did I scream? It will just draw more of them. one of them fell then another, then the last.

The black haired kid stood behind the bodies. I was shocked. He then pointed his knife at me. I didn't know what to do, usually by now when people threaten me, their dead. I couldn't do anything

"Why did you follow me?" he said.

I couldn't respond. All that came out was a very threatening whimper.

He took a step forward, limped on his wounded leg. That's when I struck. I kicked him in his wounded thigh and he let out a yell of pain. While he was stunned, I judo flipped him. I took the knife out of his hand and held mine to his neck.

Then he did a surprising thing. He laughed. Like something was funny. I didn'e know why he was laughing. I could kill him right now. I should, but something my dad said made me stop.

"You're not the only person in the world worth saving." That is what my dad said to me when I was about to kill someone and take their supplies. He held me back and the guy ran off.

It was something about this kid that reminded me of my dad. I got off him and he got up and walked away.

"Where are you going?" I asked

"What's it to you." He replied viciously

"Curiosity."

It was quite for a moment while we had a stare down

He broke is gaze and said, "Fine, I'm going home."

"Where's that."

"Scottsville"

"That's miles from here; with that wound in your leg you won't make it another mile. I can see it on your face. You're weak."

"Well I have to try. God knows what they're doing."

"Who"

"Why are you so pushy? I don't even know who you are."

"Nothing, but you shouldn't be off killing yourself alone"

"Then come with me"

"What, Why?"

"Well you obviously think I'm hot, or else you wouldn't have followed me this far."

He had a point. Not the hot part, the why I followed him part. It's not like he was unattractive. His black mop of hair gave him the "I just rolled out of bed look," and it suited him well. His sea green eyes looked like I could get lost in them. He looked strong, but not in an over compensating way, in a way you could just snuggle up with by a fire and…

Snap out of it Annabeth. You're better than this.

I'm already pretty far away from camp, and Scottville is closer. Worst case, we could find whoever he was with and maybe we could camp there if necessary.

"Fine" I said through gritted teeth, attempting to sound angry with him, but I wasn't. I wanted to go with him and I have no idea why.

We walked for a while before I said anything else.

"I'm Annabeth Chase."

He didn't say anything. He just kept looking forward obviously distracted and concerned about something. I decided to keep talking

"And you are?"

"Percy"

"Does Percy have last name" I said quizzically

"Let's just stick to first names for now."

I didn't know how to respond to that. We walked for a while until he collapsed, groaning. I helped him up.

"Lean on me" I said

"No. I … I got it" he grunted he took two more steps before he was on the ground again.

"No you don't, you can barely walk." I said "let me help you"

I can tell he wanted to protest, but he gave in. we walked for a while longer. We approached the edge of the forest and walked on the road. Once we were in town he gasped had no idea what he was so scared of. I saw a few zombies up ahead. They weren't a big deal. I left him there and got rid of them. He still had a look of pure horror on his face. I returned to him and asked what is wrong

"That was Gabe."

"Who?"

"He was in my camp."

It was silent for a moment. I knew what he was going through. I had lost someone before too. Someone close.

"Was… was he your friend" I asked

He remained silent. I had to snap him out of it. "NO. he was a monster" he said.

I was confused. "Then why do you care that he is dead"

"I don't. My mom was in that camp"

He began to walk forward. I began to follow, but he shot me down. "I have to do this alone"

"What did I say about killing yourself Percy?" I asked

"… Don't do it alone?"

"Exactly, now I'm coming with you"

"No. you've already done enough. Thank you for helping me, but you've done more than I could have asked for"

I could tell he wouldn't back down. I said "ok. I'll be on that hill over there. When you're ready to come back, meet me there."

"Ok." He said and began to walk away, but he stopped and turned his head. "Jackson"

"What?"

"My name is Percy Jackson."

He kept walking.

I didn't know what else to do, so I went on top of the hill on the edge of the forest. I could see why he was so worried. On top of the hill I saw a camp that was overrun with geeks. It had a large whole in the fence like someone was attacked the camp a little while ago. I didn't see Percy down there. I hoped he was ok.

I waited there for a few hours. I didn't know exactly how long I was there. I got to thinking why I was such a moron, why would I follow some kid I just met. If I wasn't such a decent person most of the time, my father would still be alive. I didn't like thinking about that time so I just stopped.

There was movement in front of me I pulled my knife, but it was just Percy. He saw me and nodded to me as if saying, let's go. I knew it wasn't my place, but I asked, "Did you find her?"

He was quite for a moment. He had his back to me, but I could tell he was holding back tears.

"Let's just go"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Leo

Jason was pissed. At first, I thought he was mad at me for mentioning Thalia the other night. I know that that was not the best choice of words, but I agreed with what we did. Bringing that wounded kid in was the right call. We could use another guy, someone who could bash a couple of heads if necessary, and it was necessary.

As it turns out, he was mad at Annabeth. She was gone this morning, and didn't wake anyone up to take over watch. All that was there was a simple, dirt message that said _BRB_. I admit, I was scared for her too. She left with the other guy, who must've regained consciousness in the time we were asleep, and Annabeth and him with him.

Jason kept talking about how he was going to kill her if she didn't die with that kid.

Annabeth came through the bushes about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. The weird part was, the "fucked-up-leg-guy" wasn't with her.

Jason went off about what an idiot she was being and why we can't just leave without telling us where she was going. I agree with him on that part. I was scared for her too.

After Piper successfully calmed Jason down enough to have a logical conversation, Jason asked the question on all our minds.

"Ok where's the hurt guy."

"A) His name is Percy, B) he had to be on his own for a while" she replied

"So... he left" I asked

"No, he will probably come back" Annabeth replied

"Probably isn't a chance we can take." Jason retorted. "What if he comes back with others steals our shit and kills us."

"His only group is dead, along with his mom."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I saw what remained of his camp. It was overrun with zombies. No one was left there"

We all stayed silent for a while. Then we all just left it and went to our own things. After a while, Annabeth, Piper and I went out to get some firewood. We were making chatty small talk when I decided to ask the question that was killing me to ask.

"So why did you follow him? I asked"

"I guess it's because he wouldn't make it far without help. He barely made it with my help"

Piper and I exchanged glances like there was something up, but we kept our mouth shut. I spent the rest of the night tending to the fire. I stayed up to take first watch since Annabeth was up al night last night. She was the first to go to bed.

No one talked for a while. Piper and Jason cuddling in an annoying, couple-ish way, Frank sitting up with Hazels head on his shoulder, and me, just sitting there, tending the flames. I am always the fifth wheel. No one is ever there with me, I am always just there. I feel like I don't have a purpose here, but I don't have anywhere else to go. So, I stay.

After everyone went to bed, I started walking around the camp. I didn't know what else to do, so I just sat near the fire and watched it. I've always been fascinated by fire. I woke Jason up for his watch and decided to go to bed.

The next day Jason, Frank and I went into town to look for supplies. We didn't find much, less and less every time we went. We actually started hunting with a rifle Frank found. All we got were rabbits. Frank says he shot a Deer, but it ran off and he couldn't find it. I don't believe him.

"We need to leave" Jason said out of nowhere.

"What do you mean?" Frank asked

"I mean, we need to find a new place. We obviously aren't the only one surviving around here because the supplies a dwindling faster than is possible for us to use them"

"So we find a new supply place. Or we get better at hunting. Gods know frank can vouch for that" I said in an antagonizing way.

"I'm telling you, I hit it. 1 week ago. I saw the blood fly out of the chest; it ran off before I could track it." Frank responded

"Well, track it next time big guy, I want some venison." I said

Jason interrupted our banter. "Guys, it's not just the supplies am worried about, it's the other people."

"Why should we worry about them?" Frank asked

Because they are coming deeper and deeper into the woods. I saw a few people here when Annabeth brought back that guy. They followed the sounds of the gunshots. Luckily, they didn't us, but it's not long before we get found." Jason said. He said it so smoothly and confidently that I believed him

"We are doing fine right now. Why fix what isn't broken?" Frank responded

"Better to fix or replace it before it breaks. I can vouch for that" I said. Working with cars, I learned that if something looks weak or looks like it might break soon, replace it. And if what Jason said was true, our spot might break soon.

We didn't find much in the Walmart in town. But on our way back, we spotted a deer. Not just a deer, One big ass, mother-fucking buck. It looked like enough to feed us for a couple days. Just the sight of it made my stomach growl

I came around the side of the buck to scare it out from behind the bush. That way frank could get a clear shot. Why I trusted him to take the shot after last time, I have no idea.

I threw a rock behind the deer, which was enough to get him out into the open. I waited a moment. It was pure silence. I was wondering why it was taking to long for frank to take the shot.

**BANG** …. **CRASH** …._silence._

Then I heard frank yell, "I FUCKING TOLD YOU LEO."

I looked up from behind the bush and saw the deer had a hole right in its chest. It was lying on the ground.

"I'll be damned frank, you were right."

We spent the rest of the way back joking smiling and dragging the deer back. It was a happy for a while we decided to carry the deer in together, share the joy.

As we walked through the bugles we saw Hazel, tied up along a tree hands behind her back and a cloth in her mouth.

"HAZEL!" frank screamed. He took two steps, forgetting completely about the deer, the butt of an assault rifle hit him across the face, knocking him out immediately.

Hazel let loose a muffled cry as he hit the ground. A guy came out from behind a tree that knocked Frank out. He was tall, black haired and looked like a scary biker.

He then pointed the gun at us and motioned us the come in. as we walked in we saw piper and Annabeth also tied up. They were just as scared as Hazel. Another guy came in and also pointed a gun at us. The biker guy said in a gruff voice, "Its ok now people, just give me your all shit and we'll be gone."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Piper

While Leo, Jason and Frank were on a supply run, me, Hazel and Annabeth were fixing up the camp, like the tents, clothes and the fire pit. Annabeth had a great idea where we stack up rocks around the pit so the fire can get bigger and it won't produce as much light. This way we could make the fires bigger and warmer.

As we were working, I asked, "how come they always go on supply runs and leave us women here."

"Because you'll get yourself killed." Annabeth responded.

"That's not true" I said

"I hate to take a side on this, but I agree with Annabeth. You relied on Jason since the start." Hazel joined in

"You calling me helpless?"

"No. we need you. Jason would fly off the handle and kill someone if you weren't here. You also are a good nurse to my playing doctor." Annabeth said.

I jokingly called her a bitch. In order to turn the tables on Annabeth, I brought up that Percy kid Annabeth saved.

"So, what about that kid. Percy was his name, right?"

"What about him?"

"Oh come on. You clearly got something with him. You ditched us, risked your life to help him and for what"

"I don't know" Annabeth said

"Did you two fuck or…"

"What no."

"Well would you?"

"No." Annabeth said as she turned away. I could tell she was blushing.

"That's a yes." I responded. Hazel laughed

At that point, there was a rustling in the bushes

"What was that, the guys shouldn't be back just yet."

3 guys hopped out of the bushes, guns pointed at us.

"well well well, what do we have here." Said one of the guys that looked like a scary biker.

He slowly approached us Annabeth reached for her knife, but got caught. One of the guys grabbed it from her. They then proceeded to tie us up and gag our mouths so we couldn't scream. I was the last to be tied up. As we sat there, they looked through our stuff. A few minutes later, I saw frank run through the trees yelling Hazels' name.

He got rocked by the butt end of a gun. It knocked him out instantly. That is when I knew we were fucked. I was banking on the guys coming back and killing them.

As they approached at gunpoint, Jason and Leo looked at us. I could tell he was thinking of a way out. He was clever. If anyone could get us out of this, he could. I just had to talk. I was good with talking. I could stall them until Jason or Leo could do something. I couldn't do anything with my arms behind my back.

I tried to say something, but I got muffled by the gag. The guy came over and undid it.

"what." The bikes said aggressively.

Why are you still here, you could have been gone long ago"

"Are…are you critiquing me on how to rob you."

"Yes because you are doing it terribly."

He looked confused. I kept talking like that. keeping them scratching their head was one of the only things slowing them down. I looked over at Jason. He and leo had a gun on them. he couldn't do anything until that guy was distracted.

"he you, guy with the gun. Your taking to long"

Another guy came up to me and slapped be yelling "Shut up." I could feel the burn on by face. I yelped.

It took Jason every ounce of strength to not attack him, which was good. he would have been shot.

The guy that slapped me looked at me again. He then began to stroke my face. I bit his hand. He was about to slap me again when there was a loud pump of a shotgun followed by a guy yelling "back off!"

The guy who had a gun to Jason and Leo turned and tried to shoot, but he was quickly cut off by a shot gun blast to the chest. The biker guy quickly grabbed the gun and got behind Leo, taking him hostage. The other guy just stood there.

"Percy?" Annabeth said in disbelief. I was shocked too to see the kid, standing on the rock near our camp, holding a smoking shotgun, which he promptly pumped.

"You three ok?" Percy asked me and hazel. I knew he meant it for Annabeth the most because he just looked at her.

Jason then elbowed the biker guy in the gut and got away, and then Percy shot him. He looked like a falling tree, stiff and a loud boom as he hit the ground, dead. The third guy already ran off, followed close behind by Percy.

Jason then proceeded to untie us and helped us recover. Percy didn't come back for a while. We began to set up camp for the night. Percy returned about half an hour later.

"I he dead?" I asked.

"No. he got away"

Percy then sat down and ate with us. I thought Jason was going to object, but he didn't, which was good. Leo then spoke up.

"Well, I suppose we should propose a toast to our savior and new member… fuck whats your name again?"

We all laughed at that.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Annabeth

The next morning, Jason was intent on leaving.

"We need to leave today. With what happened last night, we can't take another risk."

There was a few looks around, like they were unsure what to think. I agreed with him. I thought that we should leave, but I wasn't sure if I should bring it up.

"Jason, we've been here forever. We know the area and all the looting spots. Besides, we got through last night fine." Frank protested.

"The only reason we got through that is because Percy saved our asses." Jason responded

"You're welcome by the way." he said jokingly

"yea thanks Percy." Leo responded. "I agree with Jason."

"Let's put it to a vote" I piped up said

We always do that and it always comes up 3 to 3

Well now we have a 7th. I said gesturing to me

That earned a few nervous glances, but they all agreed. The vote came up 3 to 3. Me, Jason and Leo voted for leaving while hazel frank and piper for staying. They all looked at me, waiting for my response. I tapped his chin, and then responded "pack up people."

Hopefully that will put him and Jason on better terms. I could tell that Jason didn't trust Percy and I hoped this will put him on better footing with him.

As we finished packing up, Percy came over to see if I needed anything.

"No, I'm fine, do you need anything?" She asked

"This is all I have." I said, pulling out my shotgun

"Speaking of which, where did you find that. You looked like a badass with the whole pumping and shooting and 'back off' shit" I said.

"It was on a zombie I took out. Not a lot of ammo left though."

"Even if you run out, hold on to it. It's very threatening." I said flirtatiously.

Damn, what was wrong with me? I never flirted. That is piper's job. This guy just made me want to.

Piper interrupted "you two love birds ready. We'll leave without you if you don't hurry up."

I blushed. Ok. What the fuck. I never blush. I needed to figure out what was going on. Piper noticed me. She almost burst out laughing. I shot her a death glare. She threw her hands up in mocking defeat. Percy looked at us, clearly confused. I started laughing, which only made him more confused.

As we got on the road, we talked of where to go. Leo suggested moving into a farm. As if there were any farms in Long Island.

Then Jason had an actually helpful suggestion of finding a house to stay in

"That might work" Frank said

"They could all have zombies in them. And they can be hard to defend."

Well what's your suggestion wise girl. Percy responded.

I gave him a look that said "really".

We walked for a few more hours until we were exhausted. We needed a rest. And, to be honest, Jason and Piper were at each other's throats.

I don't know what they were arguing about, but it was getting heated. I wanted to go over and help soothe thing over, but that probably wasn't the best idea.

Percy kept looking at a large building questioningly. Then he grinned at us. "Anyone wanna go bowling?"

"What?" I said in shock.

"Well, that mall over there has a bowling alley inside, and odds are, all the pins are still up?"

"No. we don't have time for this. We need to get moving." Jason said

"Oh come on. You and piper need to do something to ease the tension." Frank said

Jason was about to go off on him, but piper said, "I think it's a great idea."

Jason looked at her, and then conceded.

We walked in, seeing about 15 zombies. Jason began to walk out, thinking we would follow, but no one did. Percy walked up, fired a shot at one. The rest of the zombies immediately began to saunter toward him. I was about to jump in to help, but he put his hand up to stop me and said, "I got this."

The next 10 minutes were full of Percy running around in circles, taking out one walker at a time. It was an excellent strategy. He would clump them all together, and then they would fall over each other, and then kill them as soon as they got within arm's reach.

Once he was done, he turned around and saw our dumbstruck faces. He must have expected loud cheering, because he looked unsatisfied by our reaction. He then held his arms up, as if addressing a large crowd and yelled, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!"

We all started laughing then got to bowling. There were only 40 lanes of set up pins, so we couldn't play long, since no one would want to go and set them up again. The next 30 minutes was full of laughing, joking and bowling, and it was a lot of fun.

As we were leaving, Percy decided to run off. He said he would be right back. I was getting ready to ditch him, when he came out of a gift shop, wearing the gayest helmet I have ever seen. It was a sky blue one with rainbows on it. We were all laughing, wondering what he was planning.

"Love the helmet, Percy" Jason said sarcastically

What Percy yelled back was the funniest thing I've ever heard. "Thanks. It protects my virginity." **(AN: Rooster Teeth reference)** It was so sarcastic and sassy, I thought Leo said it. He then bolted for the only lane remaining with pins still set up, dove on his stomach and took out all the pins. We couldn't stop laughing.

As we walked out, Percy said, "I've always wanted to do that."

"I don't blame you." I responded.

And with that, we walked off


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N sorry it's been so long since I last updated. I got school starting up again and it's been a lot. I'll try to update twice a week. Thanks for the support for this story.**

Chapter 7

Percy

After the whole bowling event, we were all put in a better mood. We walked for a few more hours before eventually resting and setting up camp in a car garage. Leo spent most of the night in the space with the cars. I asked Jason why he was so obsessed.

"His mom owned a garage. She died in a freak accident one night. Leo, before the end of the world, wanted to be an engineer. He worked with cars as practice."

"Wow. Do you think he can get one running?" I asked

"I don't think so. There are not a lot of materials left. " Annabeth responded

Leo shouted, "Don't doubt me," Which was followed by a crash and a loud "Fuck." We chuckled.

"Keep it down. We don't want to draw any unwanted attention" Frank pointed out.

We started a fire inside the building, making sure to keep it away from the oil and stuff. It was nice and warm. One by one everyone fell asleep, ending with Annabeth falling asleep on my shoulder. I was going to shake her off, but she looked so peaceful. There was a soft humming coming from the back where Leo was. It made it hard not to sleep. I started to doze off a little until I heard Leo walk in.

"Hey Jason, oh everyone is asleep. Ok then, Percy, I could use a hand." Leo said

"Yea one sec." I said. I slowly got Annabeth of my shoulder and laid her near the fire. She rolled over on her side and sighed. It was a good sign that she was sleeping well.

I walked over to the garage. Leo somehow managed to get an electric light working over a pickup truck. The light also showed Leo covered in grease, grinning like a mad man. He looked happy. I also I noticed a generator of toward the side, which was the source of the humming.

"Where did you get the gas for the generator?"

"I was already full when I found it."

"That's convenient. What do you need?"

He started to explain that all I had to do was hold down a gear for him to screw on. He was mumbling and chuckling to himself. I finally asked, "What's so funny."

"Nothing. I'm just thinking about my mom. She showed me how to fix a car."

"Do you think you can fix this?"

"I hope so. It depends on whether or not the engine has deteriorated too much. "

"Need anything else?" I asked

"Yea, grab me that wrench." He said

"Sure thing, repair boy." I responded

"Nah, I like Intergalactic Superstar McAwsome**" (A/N HIMYM reference) **he responded.

I grinned and tossed him the wrench. "No, I'm Fire Guy"

"Why" I responded

"Because I'm a pyromaniac"

"I can see that" I responded

I went back to the other room where everyone was asleep. A few zeds **(this is what I will call zombies now. It rolls off the tongue better) **were banging on the window. Annabeth woke up to this sound.

I was about to say I got it when she got up and stabbed the zeds using my circle strategy. With a defining slushing sound, they all collapsed, one by one. She then walked over to the couch she was sleeping on and laid back down.

I then said to her "what, no room for me?"

"Your fault for getting up." She responded, which was followed by a _What you gunna do about it _face. I walked over and began to wrestle her for a spot. She laughed and flipped me on my back. I forgot she could do that. I then pulled her down from the couch. She landed on top of me. I grunted and she laughed. Her blond hair in my face, gray eyes looking into mine, I began to lean up to kiss her. She didn't do anything at first. As our lips met, she pulled away. I started blushing.

"I'm sorry, I thought. Ugh, I'm an idiot." I said. She looked up at me and I wasn't sure what to do. I just kept on stuttering and mumbling.

She then said "Just stop." We locked eyes for a moment. She then got up and began to walk toward me. I had no idea what was happening until she was right in front of me. She looked at me, grinned and kissed me.

Wow, this girl I just met had more stones than I did, and I was ok with that. I kissed her back, and eventually we were in a full on make out session. I grabbed her hips and she grabbed my face. It was the best moment of my life. We made our way toward the couch she pushed me down and began to straddle my legs. She pulled away and looked at me.

"We… we shouldn't" she stammered

"Yea. That's probably smart" I replied, a little disappointed. I had a crush in this girl since she judo flipped me back in the forest when we first met. This girl was amazing. I would bend over backwards just to make her happy.

I awkwardly went over to the other side of the room and decided to sleep. I needed it. I will deal with this whole Annabeth thing in the morning.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Annabeth

I woke up to the sound of an engine trying to start up and someone saying "come on, come on come on. dam it, stop, you're gunna flood it."**(Eh, eh, did you see it. Ok back to the story)** The sound stopped and the sound of the car door closing made me jump.

I got up and decided to see what all the commotion was about. I walked out and saw a grease covered Latino boy working on a car engine. Jason got out of the driver seat and said, "Any idea on how to fix it."

Leo looked at him, gave him a look and said "yea, just … just … ok, just lemme do my thing." I would have laughed if he didn't look so stressed. Jason walked over to me and asked how I was doing.

"I'm fine, where's everyone else?" I asked

"Frank took the rest to go look for some supplies to load the truck for when Leo gets it running."

"Did Percy go with him?" I asked, regretting it immediately.

Jason grinned and said "yea, probably looking for some condoms."

I didn't respond. I knew he would just make it worse if I tried to defend myself. "I thought that Piper was bad about that. Why do you even think I like him?"

"I know" he simply said.

After a while, Leo asked Jason to try to start the engine again. Jason got in and hit the exposed wire. Leo couldn't find the key so he had to hotwire the car. The car revved and Leo was muttering "come on you son of a bitch, come on." The engine then started.

Leo took a deep breath and sighed in relief. Jason got out and I gave him a funny look. I then asked him, "I thought that his reaction would be a lot more ecstatic, like he just won a state championship. I mean …"

I was interrupted by a very loud yelling of "FUCKING RIGHT. I AM LEO MUTHA FUKIN VALDEZ. BOW DOWN TO ME." I then said to Jason, "there it is."

Jason laughed and went into the garage to get our supplies to load into the back of the truck. "Let's go get the others."

We drove about two minutes. We spotted the others walking back to the garage. Jason asked "did you get anything."

Percy held up his empty hands and said, "what does it look like." As they got in the truck, Jason said, "We need to make tighter rations."

"They're already pretty fucking tight. I've barely eaten anything all day." Percy responded

"You ate breakfast like an hour ago." Frank said

"I'm a growing boy, I need food." Percy responded. I couldn't help but grin

"We don't have a choice. We need to try and preserve the food we already have." Jason responded, and there was no arguing with that, so Percy dropped it.

Percy tried to get in the front, but it was already filled by Piper and Jason. He got in the back, looking at me awkwardly before he said "good morning sunshine," as if nothing happened. Hazel and Frank got into the back with us. I said "hi" to Percy and put my head back in my book. We began to drive off. Where to, I had no idea, but we were off.

I could not stop thinking about what happened last night. I don't even understand why I pulled away from Percy. I wanted him to kiss me since he was mumbling about his mother and I said I love you to calm down his delusional mind. It worked because he went right back to sleeping. That was when I first noticed his sea-green eyes.

What the hell. I never thought like that. I guess like him, but I have had boyfriends before, and I never thought of them like him. When I got up and kissed him back, it was the best rush of my life. I would have gone further, but I didn't want to get attached again. It never works out, not in this world.

Leo took a turn into a neighborhood filled with giant houses. We drove for a while until the engine died. Leo got out and said we were out of gas. We began to walk for a few blocks until Hazel said, "stop."

Everyone looked at her confused. "Look at these houses. They're huge."

"Yea, so" Jason said, then I realized it.

"The fences. We can keep the zeds out, while we are in. Hazel, you're a fucking genius." I said

"I just can't believe I thought of it before you" Hazel said.

"She's been distracted." Piper said. Everyone burst out laughing, except me and Percy, who had a confused look on his face. I wanted to kill piper, but I was blushing too much.

Percy was the first one to hop the fence. It was a tall black fence that had few horizontal rungs, making it hard to climb, but he managed. Jason hopped over as well. They went inside and began to clear the house. We waited outside while they cleared the house. 2 minutes later there was a gunshot that sounded like Percy's shotgun. They walked out a few minutes later, looking sad, like they just killed someone.

They opened the gate, which was good, because the gunshot alarmed a few zeds, and they were making their way towards us. They looked at each other, almost ashamed. Piper asked what was wrong, but they didn't want to talk about it.

We walked in the house and each one of us claimed a room. We spent the afternoon, making sure the fence would hold, clearing out the house of a few dead bodies, one of which looked fresh. I was afraid to ask. Jason and Percy looked upset all day, and I had no idea why.

As night rolled in, we started a fire in the fireplace and got warm. It was the beginning of fall and it kept getting colder every day. After a while of planning, we decided to sleep.

"I'll take watch" I said

"We got a fence, we don't need no watch." Leo said.

"It can't hurt" I said

They knew that I wouldn't drop it so they let me be and all went to bed. I sat on the couch near the front door and plunged my head in my book, but I wasn't reading it. I just kept on thinking about Percy.

5 minutes later, I heard a knock behind me. I looked and Percy was standing there with a bottle of tequila, softly knocking it against the wall. I gave him a look that said "really"

We stared at each other for a moment and then he said, "Please don't make me drink alone, it's just sad"

I responded saying "how old are you"

"17"

"You know drinking kills brain cells" I said

"Well wise girl, its then end of the world so who gives a shit and, at least from what I've seen, you can afford to lose a few brain cells."

It wasn't the words that convinced me to go with him, but the look on his face. It looked like a puppy begging for a treat, that I could not say no to.

I never drank before, so the tequila tasted terrible, but I forced it down, at least after I spit the first one out. It looked just like a spit take from those old movies. Percy started laughing.

After he calmed down, and we both had a few drinks, he said, "So, what did you do before the zeds overran the world."

"What do you mean?" I asked

"I mean, where you went to school, what your family was like, what did you want to be when you grew up, etcetera, etcetera?"

"Well, I went to a private school, I hated my step mom and I wanted to be an architect. What about you?"

"I went to public school, so I'm not smart, I loved my mom, never met my dad and had no brothers or sisters, and I wanted to go into marine biology."

"Why that" I asked

"I love the ocean." He responded

"Well then, your just a little seaweed brain isn't you." I said. He didn't know what I meant.

I decided to explain it to him. "Oh come on. You get to call me 'wise girl,' which I hate by the way, and I don't get to give you a nickname."

For once he didn't look confused. He gave up and I laughed. While we were in a good mood, I decided to bring up something that I was curious about. "Listen, I hate to ask this, but how are you in such a happy mood these last couple days. I mean, with your mom."

He sighed and said "she's not dead."

"What do you mean?" I asked

"I mean I never saw her body. I looked at every zed in that place 10 times and I didn't see her. So, I've just been holding onto the hope that she got out before the shit hit the fan"

It was sweet that I wanted to cry and hold him and tell him everything will be ok.

Then I decided to ask a question that was killing me. "What's up with you and Jason today? You both looked so depressed."

He was quiet for a while. I took his hand and said, "You can tell me." My heart fluttered a little bit when I did it. He looked at me and said, "We weren't alone when we got here."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean there was a guy here. He was crying when we found him. He… he was bitten. He begged us to kill him. He didn't want to turn into one of those, things, so I shot him."

He was about to cry, and I held him. As I did, he seemed so sad and helpless and I just wanted to make sure he was ok. He broke away, and took a big drink from the tequila, which helped him relax.

"Ok. My turn to ask a deep, heartfelt question that is personal and revealing." He said.

I just nodded. He was right. I said "ask away."

He did a mocking thinking face, and then asked "why have you been so distant from me today."

"What do you mean?"

"You have ignored me all day and you won't make eye contact with me. Is it because of last night or what?"

I must have been the booze talking because I said "because I like you. And I don't want to get attached to anyone. The last thing I need is another..."

I stopped but he wouldn't let up. He said "another what?"

I started to cry, which was very uncharacteristic of me, but I couldn't help myself. I hated thinking about my dad. Percy pulled me into an embrace. It was terrifying, but wonderful being in his arms. It made the butterflies in my stomach turn into a tornado and they refused to quit. We stayed there for a while until I finally said "It's my dad. We had a very tough start, when he remarried a woman I hated. But he really became amazing and he kept me alive in the early days." After a pause, I said "I watched him die."

He just kept holding me and comforting me. I thought it was great being in his arms. He just stayed there for a while.

I never talked about that to anyone. I just kept I bottled up and it just exploded right onto him. The tequila helped open me up. He was taking it well.

After a while, I began to talk again. "Since then, I have not been close to anyone. I've been afraid to. In this world, surviving is what matters."

"What's the point of being a surviving if you have no one to survive with." Percy said. I have to admit, that was exactly what I needed to hear. I kissed him. He kissed back. We didn't go any further than kissing. Neither one of us wanted to. After we broke apart, I said thank you to him

"For what?" he asked.

"Being exactly what I needed."

I began to walk away but he pulled me back and kissed me again. He said, "I'm here whenever you need me."

We spent the night there. We just fell asleep in each other's arms.

We woke up the next day to Frank walking in, saying "uh, we got a problem."

I got up as Piper walked in as well. She said "I'll make fun of you for this later, but you guys need to get outside."

Then I got nervous. I grabbed my knife and Percy got his shot gun. We walked out to see Jason talking to a few people outside the gate. There were 3 guys and a woman. The tensions seemed to be rising.

One of the guys said "Open the gate and let us in. we can help each other." The woman said. We all looked around. I was the first to speak up. "No"

One of the guys looked furious. "What did you just say to me you little bitch." I held my ground.

Another guy came and calmed him down. The second guy walked up and said "look here darling, we've had a long day. And for all you know, we've got more people, more guns. We could come back and kill you all and take this place for our own, without you. We could be dangerous."

At this point, Percy pulled out his shotgun, pumped it and said, "So could we. Now leave."

They looked shocked, but they slowly began to back up. He shot at their feet, and they began running.

"They could be back," Jason said

Percy looked at all of us individually, then said, "We'll be ready"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Leo

Piper and I were looking through a hospital. We were good on food in the house since, with the fences, we were able to start a garden. We grew some tomatoes, carrots, and even planted an apple tree in the backyard.

We set that place up for the long haul.

Piper said "I'm gunna go check one floor up. Stay here and don't do anything stupid."

"You know I can't promise that" I responded

"We are alone in here, what could you possibly do?"

"I'll find something" I said. She responded with a grin.

I'm really glad I've got Piper. She is my older sister. Not literally, but she acts like it. She checks up on me, makes sure I haven't killed myself. It is one of the reasons I stayed when I have no reason to. Yea, I am friends with everyone else, but ever since Percy and Annabeth got together, I've been the seventh wheel.

They are all doing couple-y stuff, and I'm just here saying, "That's a really good looking tree." There is not much I can do about it right now, no new girls.

There was a rustling in the other room. Just a few zeds. I decided to take them out to keep myself occupied. What was I thinking about again?

I heard voices come from the other room, they sounded serious. I crouched outside the door. They were talking about someone, about who I don't know, but the way they were talking made it sound like he was important, and that he died recently.

"So, he was shot, just like that?" one of the guys said

"Yea, in cold blood." Said another

"What happened exactly" asked a third

"We came upon these people, a bunch of kids, like 16 or 17. We talked for a little bit, and then a guy came out of the forest, clearly misunderstanding what was going on. He shot Steve and Harvey with a shotgun, and then chased after me. I barely escaped."

Fuck, I thought. Those are the guys that robbed us a few weeks back. That story was a lie. He was strait up robbing us and he was lying to his friends to cover that fact up. I began to walk backwards. I needed to get Piper and get out of here.

I did what Piper told me not to do and did something stupid. I backed into a rolling bed and knocked off whatever was on it. I made a loud crash. One of the guys walked out and saw me. He said, "Holy shit Jake, look at this skinny little fuck."

The other two walked out and looked at me. "Well what do we got here" asked one of them.

"A skinny little fuck," I guessed. They laughed.

"Not bad kid, not bad. I like you"

A door opened behind them. They didn't look. It was Piper, who saw what was going on and ducked inside a door.

The guys kept talking about what to do with me. Piper leaned out, with her gun at the ready. I immediately shook my head "no". There was no way she could take out all 3 before she herself, or I got hurt.

She ducked back behind the doorway which was good because one of the guys turned around to see what I was looking at. "What you looking at boy?"

"Nothing," I responded

He looked at me skeptically. Then his eyes opened wide. He recognized me.

"He was one of the guys that killed Steve!"

He shot and I dove into a room. It was then that I noticed my leg was killing. I looked down and saw he got me in the left thigh. My whole leg went limp and I yelled in pain. They came in; ready to shoot me, but one of them stopped them.

"We can use him to find his friends." The guy said.

The other two grinned. They knocked me out

**~TWO DAYS LATER~**

I woke up in the dark. The same way I had the past 3 days. Or was it 4. I don't know. They didn't have a clock in here, not that I can see it anyway. They came in at least 5 times to torture me. They used fists, psychological torture and, once they even water boarded me.

They wanted to know where the others were, so that they could get revenge, but I wouldn't budge. They think we killed their friend in cold blood, but he was robbing us and we killed in in self-preservation.

It was only once I was with my kidnappers that I realized how lucky I was to have my friends back at the house. That was the only thing keeping me going, waiting to get rescued. Piper must have seen what happened, she would get the others.

My leg still killed. It was definitely infected. They refused to give me any anti-biotic to treat it. Just another form of torture.

The door opened. I sat still. I knew what was going to happen. There was no point fighting back. They asked me again and again where my friends were, but I stayed silent.

They were done for the moment because they saw that I wasn't going to talk. But they still took a few shots at me anyway. I was just their punching bag.

I recognized the guy standing at the door. It was the guy that ran away when Percy killed his friends. He started to walk out when I said, "You abandoned your friends and you still can't hit me? You're a pussy." I really hate ADHD sometimes, you know. I received 3 more punches and was knocked out.

I had no idea how long I was out, but I woke up to the sound of the door opening. I flinched back into the corner and kept my eyes closed. I didn't want to get hurt anymore. I was scared.

However, a girl's voice said "I'm just here to bring you some food." She sounded so concerned. She walked in and left the door open so there was some light. I kept my eyes closed. I didn't trust her. She could be using some ploy.

What she said next surprised me "Oh my gods, what the hell are they doing to you?"

I responded with a confident, "Why, am I no longer pretty?" I laughed but it hurt too much.

She set the tray of food down and I opened my eyes. I could only make out her silhouette because the light from the door was blinding and I'm pretty sure one of my eyes was swollen shut.

She began to pet my hair, I wanted to shake her off, but it felt good to be comforted. Even if it was a ploy to get me to talk, I would at least enjoy it.

Out of nowhere, I began to cry. I usually never show any emotion except sassy and funny, but I couldn't help it. She was stroking my hair the way my mom did. I brought up…memories. It was too hard.

She sat me up and began to hold me. It was nice. I didn't know what to do, so I just kept crying. I was so scared and in so much pain, that I couldn't help it.

There was a yell outside, followed by the girl responding "coming."

She got up and began to walk out. I didn't want her to leave. I decided to ask "who are you?"

She looked at me and responded, "My name is Calypso. Get some rest." With that, she softly shut the door, once again encasing me in darkness.

**A/N: ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, **_**CATSRAWESOME**_**. I TOLD YOU I HAD A PLAN TO GET HER IN AND I DID. YOU CAN RELAX NOW.**

**JUST TO LET EVERYONE KNOW. I HAVE A PLAN FOR NICO. IT WILL BE A FEW CHAPTERS, SO YOU WILL HAVE TO BE PATIENT. I SOUND LIKE MY MOTHER. IM STILL WORKING ON THALIA.**

**THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT. NEW CHAPTER PROBALY WEDNESDAY OR THURSDAY**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Piper

I walked down the stairs of the hospital only to see Leo held up by a couple of goons. I immediately hid. I needed the element of surprise in order to take them out. I peeked around again. If I could take one of them out, which should buy Leo enough time to get out of the way or attack as well. I pulled out my Glock.

The Glock was a nice gun. A little heavy but well balanced. I could shoot a squirrel from about 20 yards away with it. These guys were maybe 10 yards away, and much larger targets than squirrels.

Leo shook his head no at me, and I had to duck behind cover, otherwise I would get spotted. One of the guys asked Leo, "what you looking at boy?"

"nothing." He responded.

After a moment of silence, I heard "He was one of the guys who killed Steve!" followed by a few gunshots. I peeked over to see what's happening. All three of them were gone. I heard a voice followed what sounded like a brick hitting a wall. A few seconds later, two of them were dragging Leo's lifeless body out of the room.

I almost yelped out in fear. His leg was dripping blood and there was a large bruise forming on his forehead. My first thought was that they had killed him. Then I put 2 and 2 together. They were going to use him for something, or else they wouldn't have taken his body.

What they needed him for, I did not know. I needed to find where they were taking him. Once they were off the floor, I hauled ass to get to the car. Leo had managed to fix up a badass, black muscle car with flames on the side. The paint job was terrible at the moment, but he planned on fixing it up. It was one of the things he loved. I kept him busy and it made him happy, which is very important.

He would always talk about "enjoying the little things."**(Zombie land, for anyone who cares)** It was something that was necessary. We had to find joy in whatever possible.

I got in the car and slowly pulled out. I saw another car and started to follow it. I had to stay several miles behind in order to remain unseen. I almost lost them a few times. Eventually, they drove down a dirt road that looked like it leads to a farm.

I got out and walked along the dirt road. I took the car, I would have no way to be unseen if I got caught. After about a mile, I saw a large house and a barn. I stuck to the tree line.

I saw a few guys exit from what looked like a tool shed. I didn't know what was in there. I needed to find out where Leo was. I stayed there for like a half hour, and then I decided to leave. I wasn't getting any information on where Leo was. I made my way back and drove back to the house.

I saw Jason at the gate. He opened it for me. I got out of the car and immediately ran to hug him. I began to cry. He had no idea why, but he comforted me anyway. Then he asked, "Where's Leo?"

I shook my head in his chest. He wrapped his arms around me. Once I got my composure, I told everyone what happened. While I was crying, everyone gathered around, and was worried. I finished by saying, "he's not dead. They took him with them. Why, I don't know. I followed them back to a farm."

Percy said, "Let's go get him. Bust a few heads"

Hazel of all people responded with a "fuck yeah."

"Not a good Idea," Jason said. "We don't know how many people they have or how they are armed."

I spoke up. "It looked like they had 10, maybe 11 people. Most of them looked in their thirties or forties. Guns, but that should be expected"

Frank said, "Nothing we can't handle."

"Let's do this diplomatically." Annabeth said

Everyone looked at her shocked, and Jason said, "the fuck we will. They kidnapped him."

"The way Piper described it made it sound like they knew who he was. Either we had a run in with them in the past, or it's a case of mistaken identity."

"If we had a run in with them, then they clearly don't like us" I said.

"We can't just go around killing everyone."

"You weren't there, they shot him and dragged him out, if they had any mercy, they would have let him go, or not hurt him." I said

Annabeth then responded, "Look, get what you're saying, but …"

"No, you don't get it." I interrupted. "He. Looked. Dead. I thought he was dead. I am scared shitless for him and I'm going to fuck these guys up. Not like you care about him. "

Annabeth turned her head questioningly. "And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh you know exactly what I mean!" I replied full of misdirected anger.

She began to walk towards me, only to be stopped by Percy. She tried to hit me, and I was barely restrained by Jason, which is weird because it's usually the other way around. Percy then picked Annabeth up and carried her kicking and yelling into the house.

"How are we gunna get Leo." Hazel asked

"Let's do a little recon on them. See what they are like." Jason said

Ok. We had a plan

_**~THREE DAYS LATER~**_

Annabeth got out a map that she drew of the area. She had calmed down and apologized for freaking out and I apologized for misdirecting my anger. We made up and decided to get helping Leo.

She had the whole area mapped out, the house, the barn, the shed, the fields of corn everything down to the trees. Annabeth began to explain what they knew, "they have a rotating outpost on the windmill. There is always someone up there."

"Our best guess about where their holding Leo is this tool shed here. A girl goes in there at least 3 times a day to bring what looks like food. She stays in there for at least an hour a time. Why, I don't know. Three guys also go in there all the time and come out holding their own fists." She paused for a moment. We all knew what she was implying.

"Anyway", Jason began, "it looks like our best chance to get to the shed without being seen is to go at night. We use the corn fields here for cover and, when the guy in the windmill isn't looking. One guy in the trees stays back and gives a signal when the guard is distracted. The other two go in and get Leo. I want another guy in the tree line with the rifle in case things go to shit, preferably frank since he's the best shot. "

We all nodded in agreement with the plan. I then asked "Now, who goes where?"

"I'm obviously the sniper." Frank said

"I'll go with Jason to get Leo." Annabeth said

Percy had a look of concern, "then I'll stick with Frank and be his lookout."

Jason shook his head. "We need someone to stay here. I things go badly and we need to get in here in a hurry, I need a good shot to cover us."

I piped up **(and yes, that a pun)**, "I'll be Franks lookout then."

We all looked around, and gave a last around. No one was sure what to say.

"Well," Percy said, "these guys clearly don't know who their fucking with"

With that, we left Percy and Hazel behind to go get Leo.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Leo

_WHACK, WHACK, WHACK_

I kept getting punched by the only guy in the room. He was muttering to himself about something. I did not know what. When he took a break, I asked, "what you saying to yourself?"

He looked at me and said "fuck you."

"Easy man. I just thought since we were spending so much time together, we should get to know each other. Bro bonding, so to speak." This was my attempt at dark humor.

He went off on some rant, but I couldn't follow it. For a while, it sounded like he was talking in third person.

He ended by yelling, "My mother, my own mother, thought that I was a monster."

He was breathing heavily with anger, and then he punched me in the gut. I doubled over, but I was already sitting down on the floor, so I didn't drop much. He then lifted my chin so I was looking in his eyes.

I could see his brown hair and blue eyes, which was a weird combination. I only now noticed that he had a big ass scar across his face. It looked bad. I just thought, 'I'd hate to see the other guy.'

He stuck his thumb in my gunshot wound, which was already badly infected. I stung like shit. With a grin, he said, "She was right of course, but it still hurt." _**(ATLA Ref)**_ He chuckled to himself, punched me again, and left.

I felt no pain anymore. My whole body was numb. At this point, he must have known that I wouldn't talk. He stopped asking me where my friends were. I was just his mother fucking punching bag.

All the punches and kicks were made worth it, just for the time I got to spend with Calypso. She apparently had been bringing me my food the whole time I've been here, I just didn't notice. Not that I could even see with my eye all fucked up.

After the first day we spoke and I cried in front of her, which was very manly by the way, she had been helping me cope and relax. She had a soothing voice and soft hands. She spoke calmly to me and comforted me. I have been talking to her and she would listen. I loved just being with her.

We spoke of nothing but life before the end, before the dead rose. I told jokes and she would laugh, it was soothing. I would try to laugh too, but my ribs hurt too much. They were definitely broken.

I told her about my mother and what she was like before and how I never knew my dad, and I talked about my friends. I wouldn't tell where they were, but she didn't ask. I had told her about Jason, Piper, Frank and Hazel. I was going to talk about Annabeth and Percy, but I hadn't had the chance yet. We can't talk for very long because her people will get suspicious.

She told me about her father, Atlas, and mother, Tethys. She spoke of them as if they were gods, even though I could tell she hated her father. They were both, as she said, 'missing'

My brain hurt from the punches. That was the only part of my body that I could feel. I could "feel" the rest of my body, but I am able to block out the pain when I daydream, which is the only thing I can really do in this dark prison cell.

The best daydreams are when I think about Calypso and her caramel hair which smelled of cinnamon. Her hair was braided over one shoulder, which showed off her dark almond-shaped eyes and a milky face. I know milky is a weird descriptive word, but it fits. You have to see her to understand it.

I was happy that the assholes were done beating me for the day. Not because it was painful, but because Calypso would be coming soon with food. I wanted to talk to her so fucking bad. Yeah, I'm being I whiney little shit right now, but it think I love her.

The door opened and she walked in. she looked at me and smiled. I said, "Hey there sunshine."

"I told you not to call me that."

"Well, I think it fits perfectly." I said. Once I heard my own voice, I realized how terrible it sounded. It was almost like my voice was rubbed with sandpaper before it left my mouth. I hurt to talk, but I kept on talking anyway.

She shook her head, but grinned. She sat down next to me and gave me a peck on the cheek. I blushed, but luckily it was too dark for her to see. There was barely enough light coming from the moon to make out her almond colored eyes. I said to her, "Well that's a first"

"And I don't plan on doing it a lot, so enjoy it."

"I always do."

She chuckled and then asked, "So, where did we leave off last time, talking about Frank?"

"I think so. Well, this guy is built like a brick shit-house, I mean; he was a little chubby when I first met him at my school, but he joined the football team and got ripped, while I stayed scrawny. He is dating Hazel, who I think of as a little, innocent sister."

She looked at me. I could tell she was curious. Not a fake, keep talking way, but a genuinely curious look. This was how I knew that she was really into me, not just playing me for information.

"Who else is in the group?" she asked'

"Nah nah nah, your turn to talk."

"really, well what do you want to know?"

I paused for a moment. I really did not know what to ask her. She seemed so confident about everything, so mature, while I was a joke telling, idiotic Hispanic boy. I couldn't even consider myself a man.

What I said next did not help in the manly category either. "I don't know. I just want to hear you talk. Your voice … it just helps me relax."

If Piper were here, she would say, 'awwwwwwwwww, so cute,' and she would make her voice crack on the 'cute'. That thought made me laugh, but it hurt my ribs, so I tried to stop, which only made me laugh harder. That process lasted thirty seconds before I finally calmed down.

Sunshine looked confused as to why I was laughing, but she didn't ask why. She must have thought it was my brain being delusional, which was the case when I was in that cell. But, whenever she was with me, the fog cleared and I could see and think clearly as ever.

She talked a while about the people here, but I could tell she didn't like them, especially some guy named Luke. She talked about him being a psychopath, but no one in her group would listen to her. Alex would talk to himself all the time; he had no remorse for whatever he did and just wanted power in the group.

The name Luke sounded familiar. Then I realized it was the guy who beats me up the most. He relishes every crack of my face, every yelp I make and every moment of silence that I give him.

He was a truly crazy, mother-fucking, ass-licking, dick face, emphasis on the crazy.

We talked for a while longer. I told her about Annabeth and Percy. She laughed at the 'how they met' story, with Annabeth judo flipping Percy. It was pretty funny.

Sunshine had to leave, but I didn't want her to. She was truly my sunshine. She makes me happy in this dark place. She is the only light I have right now. I knew she had to leave; I just didn't want her to.

She got up and walked out.

However, as soon as she was out the door, she stopped and looked at something. She looked scared. I did not know what she was looking at. The door was blocking my view of it.

She then spoke in a clear voice, "You guys here for Leo?"

There was a long pause, and a lot of tension. But a guy's voice that I recognized immediately said, "Yeah."

She nodded her head and said, "In here."

_**A/N: Sorry for a long time without a post. I don't have as much time as I would like. I hope you guys don't hate me.**_

_**My chapter updates are going to be on random days with very little consistency. It just the way it works and you'll have to deal with it.**_

_**But srsly, love you guys**__**. ;)**_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Annabeth

We were off to the farm. It was about 6 in the afternoon. The sedan was luckily still in working order. We were all afraid that it would break down. If we didn't have the car, there was no way that we could get Leo. I knew a little about cars, and there was no way that I could fix it if it broke down.

I said goodbye to Percy. He seemed nervous and scared for me. I was scared also, but I could not show him that. He needed to be strong while I was gone. If I seemed nervous, he would be nervous and he wouldn't be ready if something happened.

Before I left, Percy grabbed my wrist, spun me around and kissed me. He tasted like seawater and dirt, which was a weird combination, but it worked. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him deeper. We were there for probably 10 seconds before Piper said, "let's go lovers, Leo's not gunna save himself."

Our lips broke apart, I patted him on the shoulder and said, "Keep near the radio seaweed brain, we might need you."

"No problem. Don't kill yourself wise girl." He said

"I think about it."

As I got in the car, I said to Hazel, "Keep him away from sharp objects"

Hazel laughed and Percy complained, "I'm not a child"

We stared at each other for a second, then he said, "Ok I am"

With that, Piper drove off and we were ready to save Leo.

As we approached the road that leads to the farm, I went over the plan again.

"Here is what we do. Jason and I head in through the corn fields until we get the signal from Piper. We have this candle, it will remain lit. When you put it out, that means the guard is not in the windmill/watchtower, and we can proceed. After the signal, Piper will make her way back to the car and start it up."

"We get Leo and make our way out. If we get spotted, Frank will cover us from the tree line with the rifle. We make our way to the tree line with Leo. Frank, I'm banking on you to cover our asses if we get spotted."

Everyone nodded in agreement. I then threw on at the end, "and we don't kill anyone unless necessary. If we do, then there is a good chance that they will come after us."

Once again, they understood everything. We drove the rest of the way in silence, until frank pulled something out of his pocket.

It was an IPod. I'm serious. Of all the things in the world to have with you in the zombie Apocalypse, he has a shitty IPod.

He plugged it into the car as we looked at him dumfounded. Piper started laughing. She asked Frank, "What the fuck," Though it was hard to understand her through the laughing that filled the car.

Once we calmed down, Frank said, "Well, I love music, and we need to get pumped up. So now seems like a good time."

We started laughing again as Frank turned on the music.

Chimes began to play, and then a woman's voice began to sing:

"_Falling towards the sky_

_Waiting for myyyyyyy… ride"_

Then the bass dropped and a guy started rapping.

"_Insane breakneck pace_

_No breaks, full speed ahead on this chase_

_Goons-nipping at my heels_

_Move my wheels, cuz I'm not trying to get killed_

_Ooh-what I'm gunna do_

_Me and the crew- one false move we through_

_Stress levels high, it's a full court press_

_Cant guess wrong, the result is death"_

The song kept going for a few minutes, but I stopped listening to the words. The song was surprisingly appropriate, thinking about it. I looked at Frank and he just shrugged. To be honest, I was expecting classical music or ancient Chinese hymns, but I would never say that to his face.

Once we got closer, we left the car. We would get spotted if we didn't. After walking for a few

Jason and I went off to the corn fields while Piper and Frank stayed behind to cover us. Jason and I waited in the fields until there was a gap in the guards. As soon as Piper put out the light, we bolted to the shed. I could hear someone mumbling inside, it sounded like someone else was with him.

I crept toward the door, gun drawn, when the door opened. A girl, about 15 or 16, walked out. She had brown hair and brown eyes; at least, that is what I could see. She was about 5'6 or 5'7. She had a scared look on her face. then I realized that I was scaring her. Jason came up behind me, gun also pointed at her.

We just stared at each other for a few seconds. She was the first to speak up. "You guys here for Leo?" she asked. I was dumbfounded. She knew him. Jason responded by saying, "Yeah."

She nodded her head and said, "In here."

She looked around, probably looking for the guards, and waved us in.

I almost threw up when I saw Leo; at least I thought it was him

His face was swollen up to the point it looked like he was a balloon. He his cheek was cut, badly. He had very little color in his face. I looked like he was a zed.

Then I saw his leg. It looked green where Piper said he got shot. The bleeding had stopped, but his pants were crimson colored. He was wearing a pair of not-so-blue jeans.

All I could say was, "Oh my gods!"

Leo looked up at us. He looked perplexed, and then his face lit up. "Hey Annabeth, long time no see. Jason, you too? Shit dude we gunna party or what."

I would have laughed if his voice wasn't so hoarse. I went over to him and hugged him tightly. He yelped in pain and said, "Ribs, ribs. You're crushing my fuckin ribs."

I let him go, but I had a tear in my eye, he was really fucked up, and I wanted to kill the asshole that did this.

Jason, who was outside, stuck his head inside. "We've got company. We gotta move now."

"There's no way he can walk, let alone run." I told him

Jason looked at Leo, shook his head and asked Leo, "Can we just this chick?"

"Ya … ya… sh-she's kewl." He said, and then he passed out.

Jason looked at the girl and said, "I usually don't trust his judgment, be we've got no choice." He handed her his gun. She took it and held it in her hand like she never held a gun before. Jason walked over took a knee by Leo, said, "Sorry bro," then picked him up in a fireman's carry.

Leo yelped in his unconscious state. Jason looked at the two of us then said, "I'll make a bolt for the tree line. You two cover me, and pray to the gods Frank is ready."

I nodded, while the other girl looked nervous. "I've never fired a gun before." She said

"It's easy, just point and shoot."

She still looked nervous, like she didn't know what to do, but Jason ran for the trees anyway.

I turned to her and said, "You clearly care about Leo. You can come with us of not, but if you threaten any of us, I will not hesitate to put one between your eyes."

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but soon shut it. I heard a yell from someone at the house. They spotted Jason. They started firing. Dirt flew up around him, but neither of them was hit.

I turned to her and said, "You're coming now."

I pulled my gun, put it to her head and slowly walked out, dragging her in front of me. I took her hostage. When I first walked out, more shots were fired, but soon, someone shouted, "Hold your fire, she's got Calypso."

The shots stopped I slowly walked for the tree line. The girl, Calypso, was struggling a little bit. Either she was scared of me killing her, or she was playing the part to draw her people off the scent.

The people of the farm slowly approached me. Their guns trained on me. I shouted, "Back off" and I pulled the hammer back on my gun. It made a threatening click, and they all backed off, but guns still pointed at me. I kept walking, Calypso kept struggling and they kept getting closer.

I was 15 yards from the tree line. 10. 5. BANG. I heard a thump behind me. I turned, only for a second, to see a body on the ground, with an Assault rifle lying next to it. They had a guy who was about to shoot me. Thank you Frank.

Frank took another shot and dropped on of the guys threatening me. They all backed up 20 feet after that. I heard a woman's scream from the house. I didn't want to think of the owner.

After a moment of silence, I shouted, "I'm walking away. This bitch is coming with me. Anyone who tries to stop me will get taken out. Understood?" I didn't wait for a response. I dragged the girl with me and entered the trees.

Once we were out of sight, I heard Frank take another shot, followed by what sounded like several machine guns firing. I saw Frank running and yelling, "BAIL. BAIL."

We ran through the forest, hearing gunshots behind me. The girl was following us. I had to run around and kill so many zeds. The number of gunshots drew many of them. At least now we can't be followed, if we even get out. I got grabbed by a zed. It tripped me up and I fell, with it on me.

I tried to push it off, but the fucker was too heavy. There was a gunshot right next to my ear. The chick was still following us. She popped the zed in the back of the head. As we ran away, I hear her say, "I think I'm gunna be sick." I still don't trust her, but I don't have a choice. My ears rang for the next 10 minutes.

Finally, we got to the car. Jason was loading Leo in the back seat. Piper was driving; Jason sat in the passenger seat, while Frank got in the open trunk. I laid Leo down on the back seats, and began to work on his leg. It was the worst infection I've ever seen.

Calypso sat on the spot between the driver and passenger seat facing the back seats. I couldn't do anything to his leg until I got back to the house. He needed antibiotics and stitches. All I could do I bandage his leg, which didn't do much.

Leo woke up. He had no idea what was going on.

I said to him, "Leo, and calm down. It's me, Annabeth. I right here."

He looked around, and then lay back down. He then mumbled, "Sunshine?"

The girl leaned forward, put her hand on his head and said, "I'm right here Leo."

_**A/N: THANK YOU GUYS FOR THE SUPPORT. I AM HAVING A REALLY FUN TIME WRITING THIS AND IT MEANS A LOT. **_

_**THE SONG FROM EARLIER IS CALLED "FALLING TOWARDS THE SKY" BYJEFF WILLIAMS FEAT. CASEY LEE WILLIAMS AND LAMAR HALL. RVB FANS SHOULD KNOW IT.**_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Frank

We got Leo back. I should be happy. I should be fucking ecstatic. I should be playing my damn celebration music, but I'm not.

I can't stop hearing that scream.

I killed two men today. Not just people who were robbing us. Not just walkers. People. We came to their home, kidnapped one of their people and killed two others. One of them had an important woman in their life, a sister, wife, mother, who knows. To them, I was the monster.

What have I done? Yes we got Leo back, but at what cost.

I heard talking from the front seats. Jason and Piper must be happy. Annabeth is working on Leo and the chick is sitting next to her. I don't know what's up with her, but she must have a serious hard on for Leo. She keeps looking at him with scarred eyes.

I didn't care. I just sat here in the open trunk, legs dangling out, feet slightly dragging on the ground as we drove. I kept seeing the guy's head fly backward, and hearing the scream that followed. I kept a stern look. I didn't want them to know what I was feeling.

I kept telling myself, 'what the fuck Frank,' 'god damn it Frank,' 'really Frank,' Frank, Frank, Frank

"FRANK." Piper practically screamed at me, snapping me out of my day dream.

"What? What's up?" I asked

Looking concerned, Piper asked, "What's on your mind"

"nothing. Just… thinking."

"That's not good for you. Anyway, we'll be back soon. I'm sure Hazel will be ready."

Hazel. She will know what to do. She can get me through this.

Who will comfort the woman behind the scream?

I hate my brain. It just had to put that thought in my head. I began to tear up, but I held it back. Annabeth pulled out the radio and called Percy and told him to get the beds ready for Leo.

The next 5 minutes of driving, I stayed quiet. Once we got to the house, everyone got out. Jason and Percy half carried, half dragged Leo inside the house, followed closely by Annabeth and the girl, I think her name is Calypso. I just sat in the trunk.

I heard soft footsteps behind me. I didn't look. Hazel stuck her head out and said, "Boo!" She began to giggle. I couldn't help but grin. She then looked at me confused. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she kissed me on the cheek. I didn't blush, like I usually do when she does that.

Hazel sat down next to me and rested her head on my shoulder. I leaned my head on hers, and I let a tear fall. She asked me, "what happened. You all got back ok, and Leo is safe."

I just sat there for a while, looking up at the morning stars and a few zeds that walked by us. I finally spoke up and said, "I killed two people."

I told her what happened, the guy that was about to kill Annabeth, the man who I shot next, and the scream. She just sat there, rubbing my back and comforting me. We just stayed there and watched the sunrise.

We finally got up and went inside. Leo was laid out on the couch. He we stilled fucked up, but he looked a little better. Calypso and Annabeth were working with his leg.

Piper walked over to me. She looked upbeat, but was confused why I looked pained.

She asked me "Frank, where were you guys?"

Hazel responded, "Just outside."

"Why, all the fun is in here."

"We just wanted to be alone."

"Why, what's wrong?"

I said, "Nothing"

"Something is clearly up, what's wrong"

It was now that I noticed the empty vodka bottle. There must have been one in the house when we got here. She was clearly drinking, along with the others. Annabeth and calypso were the only one who seemed sober due to the fact that they were working on Leo.

Jason put his arm around her, and tried to get her to back off, but she didn't. she said, "what happened?"

I sighed and said, "I don't want to talk about it"

Percy then spoke up and said, "Come on man, what's wrong. If it's really that bad then…"

"I said I don't want to fucking talk about it" I spit the words like venom.

They all took a step back. It was only now that I realized that I was holding my rifle. It was almost pointed at them. In my realization, I dropped the gun and ran out. Hazel followed behind me.

She finally caught up and said, "Frank, talk to me."

"Just leave me alone Hazel" I replied

"You know I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because you can't lose yourself in this. I know you. I love you. This is not you."

"What the hell would you know about this, what I'm going through?"

"Because I saw my brother do the same thing"

I looked at her. She didn't have a brother … did she?

I asked her "what brother"

She licked her lips, as if she didn't want to talk, but she began to tell me the story of her brother.

"His name was Nico di Angelo. He has a sister Bianca. I only found out they existed a month before the world went to hell. Their father had an affair with my mother, and, here I am. Nico blames me for the separation of his parents, while Bianca was comforting. She knew it wasn't my fault."

"The first zed I saw, I with my brother and my sister. They protected me. We tried to make our way back to our father, but we never found him. We started to be on our own. We met some people, but they never stayed. Once, we were taken by some guys. They saved us, only to… do things."

She began to cry. I rushed over and held her. She took a minute and tried to gain her composure. I told her that she didn't have to continue, but she wanted to.

She told me, "its time I face my demons; the way you need to face yours."

After a minute, she began to talk again. "I don't remember exactly what happened, but I woke up in the back of a car. Nico was silent. He refused to talk to me. His black clothes were painted a crimson red. I asked him what happened, but he still refused to talk. Then I noticed that Bianca wasn't I the car. I tried to get him to talk, but he refused to."

"Over the next few weeks, he began to do some … bad things. He killed people right in front of me, and he felt no remorse. Whatever happened with the guys, it broke him. I eventually ran away. He was probably gunna kill me if I hadn't. "

"The point is, I will NOT have you fall apart the way he did." At this point, she was practically screaming at me. "Nico refused to talk, and kept it bottled up until he couldn't take it. Talk to me!"

So I began to tell her all about what I was feeling. " I killed 2 guys, one of which I'm ok with. He was going to kill Annabeth, so I felt justified in that aspect. Why I killed the other guy, I don't know. I felt powerful, I a horrific way. It almost felt … good. That's what I'm so afraid of. Am I losing it?"

Hazel took my hand, patted it and said "no. your just a little lost. Let me be your guide." She then kissed me. She had soft lips. This was the closest we've ever been. Now I know why she is so slow about being with me. I didn't have a problem with it.

As we pulled away, she said, "I love you. More than you can possibly imagine."

I looked and her and said, "I love you too. And I can imagine it."

She giggled. I love it when she giggles, she looks so cute. We walked in the house, hand in hand.

_**A/N: WHAT DID YALLS THINK ABOUT BLOOD OF OLYMPUS?**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N: I JUST REALIZED THAT I MADE IT SOUND LIKE LUKE CASTELIAN WAS THE PSYCHOPATH. THE NAMES WERE A COINCIDENCE. I PLAN TO INPUT LUKE IN A DIFFERENT WAY. SORRY ABOUT THE MIX UP.**_

_**ALSO, THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 2 CHAPTERS, BUT I DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO TALK ABAOUT SO I COMINED THEM**_

Chapter 14

Percy

I woke up hung-over. It was awful. The sun was the worst part. When I woke up, I felt like I was getting burned through my eyes. Then I felt the need to take a leak, but it hurt too much to move my head, at all.

I was about to give up on life when the door opened, followed by a heavy blond girl landing on my back. If it was anyone else, I would have punched them, but because it was Annabeth, I just groaned. She just laughed in my face.

"What's wrong?" she asked me in a mocking tone, however I could not get the sarcasm due to my head feeling like it was being crushed like a rock.

"Why did you let me drink?" I asked her.

"Two reasons. You're funny when your drunk and so I can screw with you when you're hung over, like now."

"I feel so loved." I responded

She laughed and then began to fill me in on what happened since last night, I remember up to Frank walking in with Hazel. Annabeth told me about his freak out, Leo waking up in shock and then she told me it was two o'clock in the afternoon.

I asked her, "Is anyone else as bad as me?"

"Nope, you drank like half the bottle. I'm surprised you're still alive."

Then I heard what sounded like construction outside. I asked her what was going on and she told me that everyone else was fortifying the fence in case the farm people come after us or a shit ton of zeds show up.

"I should probably go out and help." I said as I started to get up.

"Yeah, or you could stay here." She responded

"What do you mean?"

She then kissed me. God I loved when we kissed. My brain shut down as we embrace each other. She pulled away. I said, "It's still not crystal clear. Why should I stay?"

At this point, she attacked me and pinned me to the bed. She stayed on top of me, and kissed me again.

"Because seaweed brain, we are going to have much more fun up here."

20 minutes later, we came out of the room looking like hell, but we were smiling.

We went outside to see that the others were still working on the fence. Jason and Frank were nailing boards to the large fence so no one can see inside, Hazel and Piper were in the shed, probably checking supplies or ammo or something.

Speaking of ammo, I only had 1 shell left for my shotgun. It was horrible that soon, I might have to give it up. I loved this shot gun. It made me feel like a badass. Anyway, Leo was probably resting up. The new girl was nowhere to be seen.

Jason looked at us and grinned. He then said to us, "What took you so long Jackson?"

"It took some … encouragement to get me out of bed." I responded

Frank looked awkward while Jason laughed. Annabeth punched me in the arm, hard. I rubbed where she punched me and said, "That hurt."

"It was supposed to."

I stuck my tongue out at her, and then she did the same. Piper, who came out of nowhere, said, "I swear to god Annabeth, your acting like a child."

I spoke up, "She learned it from me."

"Clearly."

I chuckled and then got to work. We were going to set this place up for the long haul.

_**FOUR MONTHS LATER**_

Winter was hell, that is, if hell was cold. We ran out of firewood in the first month. How we stayed warm after that, I have no idea. The only good part was that Leo's leg was healed. He was up and around, but he still had a slight limp.

It was a relief when spring came. Annabeth looked so cute when her allergies acted up. Every time I complimented her on her cute sneezing or her nose, which was red from her rubbing it all the time, she looked like she was going to hurt me. Then I'd kiss her and she would relax. I've just got that charm I guess.

The house was a fortress. Nothing got in or came out that we didn't want to, not like anything could move with the amount of snow there was, but now that spring was here, it all melted.

It was a relaxing day, up until life went to hell. It all started with a noise. It was a constant ringing, like a car alarm. It sounded very far away, but it still kept us on edge. It kept getting louder and louder. Jason suggested that someone go check it out.

Annabeth said, "No. (sneeze) where ever that sounds origin is from, it's got to have a shit load of zeds on it at this point. (sneeze)"

Leo said, "Your argument would be so much more effective if you stopped sneezing"

Annabeth flicked him off, and he just put his hands up in defense.

The alarm kept getting louder and louder, and everyone began to get worried.

Out of nowhere, a guy walked up the only open section around the fence. Instantly, we pulled our guns out. He had his hands up and had a grin on his face. After a moment of silence, Calypso spoke up and said, "Stephan."

The man looked up and said, "Calypso, my my, it's good to see you."

"What do you want" she asked.

"To know why you left our farm. You clearly would have been safe from these crazed people."

I spoke up, "Says the guy who kidnapped one of our own, mercilessly beat him and was going to kill him."

"And are you no better? As I recall, you took one of our people hostage, kidnapped her and killed two others. It is clear that…"

"Fuck off, before I make you" I threatened.

"With what, your last shotgun round. I know all of you have very little ammo. What is it, one clip each? Less?"

We swayed uneasily. He was right. Jason then asked, "How did you know that?"

"Oh, trust me Jason Grace; we do our research very thoroughly." This Stephan guy wasn't messing around. He must have been scouting us for a long time.

Then, Annabeth spoke up. "What your plan then, scare us into submission. I've dealt with bigger assholes than you."

He just grinned, like he already won. "Well darling, your home has one major flaw that even you, wise girl, don't even know of." That was the last straw. Nobody calls her wise girl, but me. I pulled the trigger on my shotgun, blasting him in the chest.

He was dead in an instant. No body objected to what I did. At this point, the car alarm was really loud. Annabeth's eyes widened. "What is it?"

"We have to get out now."

"Why," Leo asked

At that exact moment, a giant hummer smashed through the gate, its alarm blaring. With a giant hole in the gate, zeds poured in. we all ran for the back gate of the house, but there were zeds everywhere. The alarm drew a fucking herd of zeds. The next few minutes were us fighting through a shit ton of zeds, trying not to get bitten.

Somehow, we made it out of the gated area and into the streets, but there were still many more. There was a yell for help behind me. Frank got surrounded. I pushed my way in and got Frank out. I got grabbed by the arm by a zed, but I was able to pull away. Everyone was split up at this point. I had no idea where anyone was.

Somehow, I made it to Annabeth. I grabbed her by the hand, and she almost stabbed be in the face. Together we ran having no clue where anyone else was or even if they were alive. The zeds were all around us, trying to get a hold of us, but we just kept stabbing and running.

After what felt like hours, we made it to the edge of the herd. Our clothes were ripped torn and covered in zombie guts. Panting hard, I heard Annabeth let out a yelp. I turned and saw that she was looking at my hand. I looked down to and…. Oh shit

A bite, right above my hand on my wrist. There was only one thing I could do. I kissed Annabeth, who was crying. I said, "I love you," but I didn't stay for a response. I ran into the street, making as much noise as possible. If I couldn't live, I would draw every zed towards me and give Annabeth the room to escape.

Annabeth cried out for me, pleading me to come back, and it took all my strength to not turn around. I yelled back, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE," and I ran screaming, "HEY YOU MOTHER FUCKING ZOMBIE COCKS. FREE MEAT RIGH HERE COME AND GET IT. COME ON. LET ME SEE WHAT YOU'VE GOT."

My plan worked. Every nearby zed turned to me and followed. Annabeth had a clear lane to escape and get free.

After about 5 minutes of running, yelling and making as much noise as possible, I knew there was nothing more I could do. I made my way into a house. It looked like people were or are still living in it.

I took a deep breath and took hold of my knife. I wasn't going to turn into one of those monsters. The last thing I remember was saying to myself, "I'm sorry Annabeth."


	15. Chapter 15

_**A/N: please don't hate me for the last chapter, I've got a plan**_

Chapter 15

Annabeth

We finally made it to the edge of the herd. Whoever that fuck that was that sent the hummer through the gate deserved to die a horrible death. I grabbed Percy's hand to comfort myself, but it felt weird. I assumed it was just blood and guts from fight, but when I looked down, it was worse.

A bite. Holy fuck. I held back a shriek, but not well enough, because Percy looked at me with that confused look I loved, but it wasn't cute now. He looked down, but it took a few seconds for him to realize the bite. He blinked and then widened his eyes in shock. I began to freak out; my mind was running a million miles a minute. All I could think of was, 'no no no no no no.'

Percy looked at me, his sea green eyes penetrating my gray one's which were tearing up. He just kissed me. My mind refused to quit. It just kept thinking of how to fix him, how to stop the infection, how to get us away from the herd that was closely approaching us.

Our lips separated and he looked at me, then at the closely approaching herd, then back at me. He said, "I love you." That was the first time he said that to me, and it would apparently be the last, because he ran off. I cried his name; I didn't want him to go.

He shouted back, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE" and then continued to shout at the heard and banged whatever he could find to make noise. The herd began to follow him, I stepped toward his direction, but I was cut off by the zeds. A few more zeds separated from the herd and began to chase after me. I ran.

I just kept running and crying, crying and running. For hours on end, I just ran until I couldn't run anymore. I finally happened upon a large tree. It looked climbable. I got up and sat on a large branch. I kept my hands busy by making a makeshift bed. I took branched from all around the tree, cutting them with my knife.

Once I finally had a safe place to lie down, I looked at my gun. 3 bullets, perfect. I lay down as the sunset. There was nothing more I could do. All day, I kept myself from thinking, but I couldn't do anything now but think. I leaned against the trunk of the tree and held my leg up against my chest.

I let a single tear fall. I whispered to myself, "I love you too Percy"

_**1 week later**_

"Where you going girly?" The guy yelled

I kept running. The 2 guys kept chasing me. I was faster than they were, but earlier I twisted my ankle really bad. At first, all I could do was yell at it, screaming, "fuck you, fuck you." Then I realized I sounded like a psychopath.

They caught up to me. One of them grabbed my hair. I pulled my knife out of my belt and sliced it his arm. He yelled, but I kept running so I couldn't see what happened. I ran into what looked like an old motel. I hid in a room. I heard doors breaking down. They kept looking for me. I hid under a bed, but once I got there; I realized it was a crazy obvious spot. I would be found instantly. It was too late to change my spot. One of the guys walked in. it took him 5 seconds to find me. When he looked under the bed, he yelled, "I got her." He grabbed me by the backpack and pulled me up against the wall.

Another guy came in and looked in my backpack. He pulled out some cans of food, a half full bottle of water, an empty gun and crackers. The two guys looked at each other.

The guy holding me up against the wall said, "We're gunna need a little more, for this." He held up his arm, which was badly cut. He began to brush my hair out of my face. I slowly moved my hand down to my belt. My knife wasn't there. I must have fallen out when I was under the bed. He threw me to the floor.

Before he could do anything, there was a thud, followed by a yell in pain. Then there was a gunshot. I looked at the door. There was a kid standing there. He was short, but that was all I could see of him. I turned around and saw one of the assholes that chased me held his bleeding hand against the wall.

Then I saw that there was a knife sticking out of the palm. The kid threw a knife and it stuck him against the wall. He was squirming, but every move made him shout in other one had a bullet hole in his head.

The kid in the doorway took a few more steps; I saw he had black hair, and pale skin He looked outright terrifying. He looked at me, and I thought he would attack me.

He nudged his head in the direction of the door and said, "Go. I got something to take care of"

He looked at the guy stuck to the wall, and began to slowly walk towards him.

"Please, no, no, I'm sorry. Get this psychopath away from me." This kid clearly knew the asshole.

I didn't stay to see what happened. I ran out. I stood by a car to catch my breath. A blood curdling scream came from the room. He kept screaming for help, but it wasn't coming. I started to hear heaving breathing, and then one final short yell, and then silence. The kid walked out looked at me, then immediately got in a car.

The muscle car was black with a red stripe running along the side. There was a faded image on the hood, maybe a skull. If it was, it clearly fit his personality.

I ran up to the car and said, "Take me with you."

He stayed silent, not even making eye contact with me. I tried again, "Please. I have nowhere else to go."

He closed his eyes and was clearly frustrated. When they opened, he reluctantly unlocked the passenger door. I got in and he drove off.

The car had faded and badly torn black leather seats. It was stick shift. I could tell because he was messing with the gear shaft and the clutch. I looked at the speedometer, we were going 50 mile per hour, which was pretty fast for the shitty conditions of the road. Since the road hadn't been touched in the two years since shit went down, they were obviously going to be terrible.

The windows were open and I could feel the wind running through my hair. It was the first time I felt that since Leo had the working truck, and since I lost Percy.

This was the first chance I got to really take a look at the guy. He had jet black hair and very pale skin. He had bags under his eyes like he hadn't been sleeping much. He wore a leather jacket and black jeans with a chain running from his back pocket to his front one. The shirt under the jacket was white, but I couldn't tell what it was.

Although he did not have much muscle, he looked terrifying. He had several guns in the back seat, like big guns: AK-47, M16 and what looked like a sniper. Yes, I have gotten to know my guns since the beginning of the end.

There was a roar of the car engine behind us. A blue suburban came behind us and was closing fast. The guy just calmly glanced at his mirror. He simply looked forward, put the car in first gear and floored it.

My head flew back to the seat rest. I glanced back at the car behind us, but it was a speck of dust. The speedometer said 140 miles per hour. Now 150. The speedometer maxed out and we were still accelerating. With a blank stare, the guy looked back at the mirror, saw they were gone, and then slowed down.

After a moment, I said, "Fast car?"

He didn't even acknowledge my existence.

"I'm Annabeth…" silence. "And you are?"

I could tell I was annoying him. I stayed quiet for a few more minutes. Just listening to the sound of the car engine and watching a few zeds as we by.

I asked him, "What should I call you?" Still silence

"Do you like 'Mute'. It's a fitting name."

He closed his eyes, clearly frustrated, and then he opened them. He was listening to me and I could tell I was getting under his skin. I stopped talking. The last thing that I wanted to do was piss off the guy that helped me.

After a while, I began to talk about myself. Tell him who I was, what happened to me and all about the hummer and the herd. He just sat there doing nothing. I mentioned Percy, which was hard for me, but I needed to let my feelings go. He was gone and there was nothing I could do about it.

I hoped that me talking would open him up, but he still just look ahead, hopefully not ignoring me. "If you're not talking because you've lost someone, I understand. I've lost people to. I lost Percy."

"You have no idea what loss is." He muttered this so softly, I almost didn't hear him. He actually spoke. I tried to contain my surprise, but it clearly showed through.

He sighed and said, "I'm Nico

He opened up a little

This is progress.

_**A/N: that was a 'Last of us' reference. Not even going to try and take credit for that.**_

_**Thank you guys. Sorry for leaving you on a cliffhanger for so long**_


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Jason

I kept running. The herd was right on my ass and I was exhausted. I got separated from everyone else. Piper was my main concern, but I didn't get the chance to find her once the shit went down. When I finally made it to the end of the herd, I looked around like crazy, but she was nowhere to be seen.

I ran in an alley between 2 houses, when out of nowhere, I got grabbed. A shed door had opened and a hand pulled me inside. My knife was at the person's throat in an instant. It was pitch black in the shed and I couldn't see who grabbed me.

Then I felt a pair of lips touch mine, the same lips I have felt for the past few months. When we separated, I said, "Piper?"

"ssshhhh, they can hear us." The voice that belonged to Piper said.

I embraced her. I can't believe I found her. We sat down in the empty shed and just listened to the zeds pass by. After a while, there was loud shouting and banging. Someone was drawing off the walkers. It was good up until I realized whose voice it was.

"That's Percy."

Then the voice shouted, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE" and then continued to draw the zeds attention.

Piper whispered to me, "We have to help him"

She was about to push the door open when I grabbed her arm. I said to her, "There's nothing we can do."

"Well we have to try."

I shook my head and said, "He is trying to draw off zeds, and it's working. Almost every zed in a mile radius is going to him. Also, there's a shit ton of them outside this door. There is no way we can get him."

Piper looked down. I was right and she knew it. She took a seat by me and rested her head on my shoulder. We stayed there long after what we thought was Percy stopped banging and yelling.

After about a day of sitting in the shed, we got out. It sounded like most of the zeds passed us. We made our way back to the house, hoping someone else was there. People were, but not the ones we knew.

There were at least 10 guys in the house and in the yard. We stayed outside, hoping to not get seen. I overheard their conversation.

"- thought that Jimmy would die in the car."

"Shit man, I almost did. I almost got the windshield smashed in, but luckily, they stopped"

There was the sound of a door being kicked in, and a man's voice said, "Look at all this shit. They got food for days."

I cursed to myself. I hoped that they wouldn't be here. We needed that food, but there was no way to get it. Piper and I left at that point. There was no chance of us reclaiming the house.

We walked for a few hours. Eventually, we stopped in order to rest and get food. I wanted to start a fire, but the light would attract unwanted attention. We found ourselves in a Walmart. It was empty of zeds, but I could tell people were scavenging here.

I laid a blanket down on a shelf, Piper went scavenging for any possible, food, ammo, water, etc. and we met up in the middle of the store. We fell asleep on a shelf in a Walmart. Not romantic, at all. Like seriously, this is the opposite of romance, but we didn't give a shit. We just laid together, my arm around her waist and out hand interlocking. I smelled her hair, which didn't smell good, but I was content.

The next morning, we woke up to the sound of shuffling. There was a woman looking at the shelf below us. She had red frizzy hair and wore a red army jacket. She looked in her early 20's and looked about 5 foot 6. I was getting ready to pull my gun when I heard what sounded like a running.

Then I realized it was a little boy. He came around the corner, carrying a backpack. There was no way the boy was more than 7 or 8 years old.

The boy ran up to the lady and said, "Rachel, I heard a noise, I'm scared."

"Timmy, calm down. I've cleared this store before. We are alone."

Timmy was so cute that I chuckled, but soon silenced myself. Rachel looked around, but shrugged it off.

Piper and I had one of our telepathic conversations.

_I know what you're thinking Piper, don't_

_We should introduce ourselves_

_No. stay hidden until they leave. It's the best route. _

_She seems well fed and supplied. She might have a camp with others. _

I shook my head and whispered to her, "If she has more people, why would she bring a kid along with her on a supply run."

"She is a good person. Why else would she even have a kid in the first place?"

There was a voice from below us that said, "You guys really need to learn how to whisper. It may save your life."

Piper leaned over and said, "Hi…"

She just chuckled and said, "You guys comfortable up there."

"Not even slightly." Piper responded as she got down.

I was a little less willing, but I got down too. We explained ourselves and said what happened to us. She just nodded and seemed really cool, even though she had a little boy hiding behind her leg. He was the cutest mother fucker I've ever seen

Piper and I made our way out of the Walmart with Rachel and Timmy. We walked for a while, taking out a few zeds and patrolling the area. This Rachel chick was a little quirky, but she could handle herself in a fight.

Piper and I walked in front of the group for a while to give Rachel a break from taking out the zeds we passed. Timmy walked up behind Piper and pulled on her shirt hem. She looked down and smiled gently. Timmy asked, "You're pretty. Will you be my girlfriend?"

I had to catch Piper from falling she was laughing so hard. I was laughing to, but I said to Timmy, "Sorry bro, she's taken."

He had a sad look on his face and walked back to Rachel who was chucking. We made it to her camp, which was a small yard with tin cans tied by a string about waist high. I looked at her and she said, "if any zeds come by, it'll make a sound and wake me up"

"Smart" I replied. Rachel had an extra tent and Piper and I set up while Rachel cooked up some squirrels she caught in her traps. After we ate, Rachel put Timmy down for bed. Piper, Rachel and I sat outside and talked. She told us about Timmy.

"Timmy's mom found me. She took me in despite the arguments by her group. We got attacked by some bandits, I luckily got away. I found Timmy and his mom together. She was bitten, Timmy was crying and I tried to calm him down. I sent Timmy into a car and… put a bullet in his mother's head. She asked me to take care of Timmy, and I am."

"What about you guys? What's your story?" She was trying to change the subject

We then told her about what happened at the house, Leo getting kidnapped, the rescue mission and the herd.

We stayed quiet for a while, but then we decided to go to bed.

Before we fell asleep, Piper said, "You know, I may just leave you for that kid."

"And I would not blame you." She laughed, and we dozed off.

The next day, I woke up to the sound Rachel coughing. Timmy was outside dealing with the fire pit.

Rachel walked out, but she looked like shit. She was pale and sweating profusely. I asked her, "Are you ok?"

"Yea, I'm good." she responded, "I just feel a little off."

Piper said, "You look a little off"

"Holy shit your infected." I said incredulously.

"That's a bad word" Timmy said out of nowhere.

"No, I'm not. I'm just sick, like the flu."

"I've never seen flu this bad" I said.

"I'll be ok, just give me a minute." Rachel responded hoarsely.

She lifted up her shirt to change it, but there was a red mark on her side, just above her hip. It was a bite. She looked at it and said, "Well, shit."

Timmy didn't even get mad about her swearing, he was in shock.

Timmy began to cry and it was attracting zeds from out of other houses. We didn't have long before they were on us. Rachel and Piper noticed this too. Rachel looked at Piper and said, "Can you get him out of here?" she was talking about Timmy

She took a glance at the zeds, and then said, "Yes."

She nodded, and then turned to Timmy and said, "Go with Piper. She will take care of you."

"But…but" Timmy stuttered through sobs.

I had to step away to take care of the zeds before it was too late. I could hear Timmy crying about Rachel, but I didn't have time to check it out. Eventually, Piper called and said, "Rachel will distract them, Timmy's coming with us."

"Ok" I responded and we ran off holding Timmy's hand while he ran.

I could Hear Rachel shouting in the background, but we got away. Then I heard a single gunshot. She must not have wanted to get eaten alive.

I don't blame her.

_**A/N: THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT. I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU GUYS.**_

_**I HAVE HAD THIS OTHER IDEA FOR A STORY. IT'S A PERCABETH STORY THAT STARTS OUT REALLY SAD BUT GETS HAPPIER. I WILL OF COURSE KEEP UPDATING THIS STORY, BUT I THINK IT WILL BE FUN TO RIGHT ANOTHER ONE AS WELL. LET ME KNOW IF YOU'RE OK WITH THIS. UPDATES FOR THIS STORY WILL COME LESS OFTEN.**_


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Frank

I turned for a few moments, fired of 3 of my remaining 6 rounds, none of which hit their target, the guys chasing Calypso and I, then I started to run again. I was the only one with a gun, so every 10 seconds. I turned and fired, hoping to slow them down.

They kept shouting things like, "you did this." And "steal from us again, and you will regret it." I didn't know what they were talking about, but it was clearly a case of mistaken identity. I could tell that there were 5 guys left chasing us. I turned, fired my last 3 shots, and then all out sprinted.

I heard a yelp. T turned to my right. Calypso was on the ground, grabbing at her ankle. I didn't have time to figure out what happened. I just picked her up in a fireman scary and began to run again. Her hips kept bouncing off my shoulder, which hurt, but I ignored it.

I was running out of steam. My legs were shaking with every step and I was panting like crazy.

Out of nowhere, a girl hopped down from a tree. She dangled from a low branch by hooking on to it with the back of her knees. We made eye contact ant she pointed up, into the tree. She wanted us to go up. Holding her hand out, she grabbed on to Calypso's hand and pulled her up. I jumped up the branch to join them.

I finally got up the tree and began to catch my breath. The girl had ginger hair, blue eyes and looked about 14. She shushed me. My breathing must have been too loud. I watched as the guys passed under me. There were 7 in all, 4 men and 3 women, all of which were ready to kill us for something we didn't do. Classic end of the world stuff.

They ran between a group of bushes, when out of nowhere, 10 people hopped out of the bushed and slaughtered the bad guys. They didn't stand a chance. The girl in the tree hopped down in an ninja-like fashion and yelled over to her friends.

I hopped down also. I held my arms out and calypso jumped down into them. a guy walked over to us and said, "let's go kid, and bring you girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend."

The guy sighed in relief, saying, "thank god. She is so far out of your league."

I fought the urge to punch him. Another person came up and said, "Back off Adrian"Ardrian walked off. The ginger haired girl who got us in the tree came over to me and said, "Ignore him. He's a racist asshole. "

"I can tell" Calypso responded as she limped over.

She smiled and asked, "What's your name?"

"I'm Frank, and this is Calypso"

She smiled and said, "I'm Phoebe."

"Well Phoebe, thanks for getting us out of there."

"Not a problem. We need more people anyway."

"We?" Calypso asked

"Yeah, we got a whole camp, food, supplies, people, but we can always use more."

She turned away and joined up with her friends. Calypso looked at me, shrugged and walked over along with them. I ran up to her and asked, "Are you sure going with these guys is a smart idea."

"Well what the hell else are we gunna do." She said.

She was right. We had nowhere else to go and these guys seemed like they were cool. After about 10 minutes of walking with these new people, we came upon a camp site. No, that's the wrong word. It looked more like a compound. It had at least 20 tents and a couple of lean-tos.

There were 5 fire places all with pots on them, cooking up dinner it looked like. There were probably 30 or so people, all of whom were between the ages of 10 and 30, some older and some younger. There was a fence around about half of the area, and it still was under construction.

Phoebe walked over to us and said, "Ok guys. Welcome to your new home, if you wish to stay. We don't have anywhere for you to sleep at the moment, so your gunna have to sleep outside, same applies for all new people, if your aloud to stay"

"What do you mean 'if were allowed to stay'?" Calypso asked

"Well, if it were up to me, you guys would be welcome, but unfortunately, I'm not."

"Then who is? Can we talk to him?" I asked

"Her" phoebe said

Calypso, clearly annoyed, said, "Ok, can we talk to HER?"

"She's not here at the moment, for now, I'll show you to our second in command, Luke."

She walked over and motioned for us to follow. We walked through the camp, receiving a few eerie looks. I don't blame them. We were new and they didn't know us. Phoebe showed us to the largest tent. In front of the tent, there was a guy with a scar on his face. He had blond hair and blue eyes. He was sharpening a sword that was about 3 feet long.

He looked up and smiled a Phoebe and she smiled back.

"Luke, this is Frank and Calypso. We found them when we were trapping the geeks earlier today."

He examined us. He looked back to phoebe and said, "You know it's not my call."

"You know damn well that she's losing it. She needs a second opinion and you're the only one she trusts." Phoebe said.

"Don't let her hear you say that." Luke mumbled.

"Come on Luke, be serious"

Luke rolled his eyes and said, "Look, I'm not gunna go against what she says or even so much as argue it. If I do, I'll get a bullet between my eyes. She scares the shit out of me."

"She's being too strict with the curfew, the rations that are way too slim than we need and It's tearing the group apart. People are already talking about…" she leaned in and whispered, "getting rid of her."

Now, Luke looked angry. "She's the one who held us together."

"And now we need someone else dictatorships are never like by the people."

"Don't pull that historical bullshit on me. This is way different." Said Luke

"Talk to her. That's all I'm asking."

Luke sighed, shook his head and said, "I'll try. It probably won't work though."

It was silent for a moment, and then I said, "I'm going to assume that this is more than about the two of us."

"You've got no idea." Replied Luke.

He showed Calypso and I to a fire pit where there were people talking. We sat down, followed by phoebe sitting next to us.

Everyone chatted for a while, until a group of five walked passed by the fence, led by a girl. She was about five foot five and had short black hair, spiked in the way of a punk rocker. She had a few freckles and blue eyes that shined bright in the darkness of the evening.

She walked over to Luke and talked to him. After a minute, Luke motioned over to Calypso and I. she turned slowly to face us. After a quick examination, she turned back to Luke and said something that I couldn't make out, but I could tell it wasn't good based on Luke's expression.

Luke tried to say something, but the girl, probably the leader I've been so worried to meet, raised her voice.

"Have I not made myself clear?"

"Yes, but let me make my argument." Luke said

"I know your argument; you've made it so many fucking times. I've grown tired of it." She turned to face us and said, "Get them out of here."

The people we were sitting with looked unsure, but eventually a few people got up and began to escort us out.

Luke spoke up and said, "Thalia please. You're scaring everyone. You're acting crazy."

I got grabbed and began to get pushed out. Thalia? That name sounded so familiar.

"You're already on very this ice Castellan. Don't make it any worse on yourself."

She looked a lot like the way Jason described his sister, but I couldn't remember name. don't blame me, I've had a lot to worry about besides Jason's dead sister. But she might not be dead. At least, that's what Leo said. HER NAME WAS THALIA, FUCKING THALIA.

"We know Jason," I shouted

Everyone at the campsite stopped dead in their tracks. All I could hear was the cricket chirping in the evening air. They must've known Jason too. Thalia slowly turned and faced us. After a momentary staring contest, she said, "Da fuck did you just say?"

I caught my breath and said, "We know Jason. Short blond hair, blue eyes, six foot one, scar on his lip. Sound familiar?"

Thalia slowly walked toward us. No one else in the group even dared to breath. Once she was face to face with me, she asked me, "Where. Is. My brother."

"I… I don't know." I stuttered, followed by Thalia punching me in the face.

"What happened?" she asked me.

"We…we were in a group together for the past six months. It was me, Calypso, Jason, Piper, Leo and 4 others. We held up in a house surrounded by a gate until Leo got taken. He was tortured and Jason made a heroic effort to save him. After we got Leo back, his captors came after us. They drew a herd to us. Calypso and I got out. I have no idea on anybody else."

She studied me and then asked, "how did you know who I was? I've never met you"

Calypso spoke up this time. "He never stopped talking about you. Hell, I've been with them the shortest time and I can tell you two are related."

"How? We look nothing alike." Thalia said

"You have very similar personalities."

Thalia got up. She was in disbelief. She walked to her tent. Before she walked in, she turned and said, "You guys can stay."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Leo

My eyes opened to 14 year old girl fidgeting something with in her hands and looking out the window. I groggily shook my head and stretched. She looked at me, smiled and looked back out the window. She seemed nervous about something.

I knew what it was. I had the same feeling about Calypso. I hadn't seen him in two weeks. The herd has shown up and we got separated. For all I knew, everyone else was dead.

Hazel got up, stumbled a little and began to walk. She looked sickly. She hasn't been eating much, not that I have either, but I have been practically forcing food down her throat. I wasn't sure if she was sick or just depressed about Frank.

I got up and walked over to the door. It was blocked with a couch and had a chain lock on it. We were in an apartment building on the third floor. I thought it would be a good place to look for supplies. The apartment building had a shitload of zeds in it as well.

After we cleared it out, I struggled. I found no purpose for living, I mean, calypso, Jason, Piper, everyone, they were our family. I loved all of them like I did my mother. I relied on Hazel to keep me grounded and moving. That's what got me through it. If I was on my own, I probably would have put a gun in my mouth.

Hazel and I had been in the building since everyone got separated. We cleared out most of the building and we will need to be moving on soon. Unfortunately, Hazel is in no condition to travel.

She's barely been eating, she's been coughing hoarsely and it looks like she has a fever. I've had to coddle her to sleep and force food down her throat the past few days. She has a bad flu, or worse. She wasn't infected. If she was, she would have told me.

She can't sleep a lot before she wakes the both of us up with her coughing. All I can give her is Advil. I helped a little, but it's no long term solution. I began to look through the 2nd to last apartment in the complex. I knocked the door down, three zeds. Nothing I couldn't handle.

The sound of the door being kicked in drew the zeds in. They crowded around the door. I stepped out of the room and let the first one through. I was about eye level with the bitch. I struck my knife into its temple, stopping its groaning and stumbling. Red exploded out the side if the head where my knife went in.

The other two came through at once. Reaching for me with their decayed, dangling arms. Their teeth, rotting and out of place, were hoping to get a bite out of me. Their faces had very little muscle and their skin hung on loosely.

I kicked one of them in the knee, making it fall the other I stabbed in the forehead, but the shithead pulled me on the ground with him. I got up, ready to take the other, but it was still on the ground. The zed couldn't get up. It was just crawling towards me on its forearms, dragging it's legs behind it lifelessly.

Without a moment's hesitation, I stomped its face in. again and again, my foot went through its head. By the time I was done, the fucker didn't even have a head left. No matter what anyone says, I never got used to the smell.

I cleared the apartment, only a few cans and a bottle of aspirin were found. Lastly, which is usually a dumb move, I opened the fridge. Normally, the fridge is filled with rotten food and smell like a rats anus. This time, it was a great decision.

An M4 semi-automatic rifle with 3 fire modes: 1 shot, 3 round burst or full auto. Not only that, the fridge had a detachable scope, a lot of ammo and, most importantly, 2 silencers. 2. Also, a 4 foot steel machete that looked like it's had its fair share of kills.

It's Christmas for me. I gathered everything up and all out sprinted back to the third floor. I couldn't wait to show Hazel.

I barged in, but she was asleep, snoring loudly. It was good. This was the first time she slept well in a few days. I then started clean my new gun. She was a little rusty and it clearly hadn't been used in a while.

She needed a name. Something funny that would make someone's last words be "Wait, what?" then it came to me. I'm not sure if Hazel will get it, but I know that Piper would have, if she wasn't dead.

I cleaned her as much as I could. Hazel was sound asleep still. I decided to follow her lead.

I awoke from my nap to Hazel taking more aspirin. She swallowed it with her water, which was almost empty.

"You look better" I said to her

"I feel better. It was just the flu." She responded, a little chipper.

"Thankfully, nothing worse."

"By the way, where did you find the big gun."

I grinned, jumped up from my covers and began to introduce my baby to Hazel like a salesman.

"Well Hazel, this pretty young thang is an M4 automatic Rifle with three firing options, detachable scope and, most importantly, a silencer."

She looked at me and asked, "A silencer?"

"Yeah. I can fire this motherfucker anywhere I want and no need to worry about drawing zeds. I call her, Festus" I looked at her expectantly, but she didn't get it. It's ok. She wasn't in on Piper Jason and I's inside joke.

I explained to her, "It means 'happy' in Greek"

"You named your gun 'happy'"

"Yup"

She chuckled a little, which was all I expected.

"Anyway, now that you're healthier, we are going to need to move on soon. We've searched the entire building and there's nothing left."

She sighed and said, "Yeah your right. I'll start packing. Leave tomorrow?"

"Sounds good." I hung Festus over my back with the strap and walked out to search the last apartment.

I walked three doors down and on the right and kicked in the door. That's when shit began to go down. I walked in and took down one zed. I walked in the next room and got swarmed. There must have been upwards of 20 zeds 'stored' in there.

Four of them got me ant pushed me against a wall, all I could do was hold them back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other zeds tripping on each other. I had maybe 5 seconds to deal with these guys before the others were on me.

I held two of them per arm and it was hard. I'm not strong like Frank or Jason or Percy. I barely held them off. I kicked one of them in the knee and it toppled. I inhaled and forced the two on my left arm off and they fell back.

I pulled my knife from my belt and killed the last zed. Once I had an opening, I ran for the door and yelled, "Hazel, get your shit."

She poked her head out of the room, saw me being chased by zeds and went back inside. I stopped right in front of the door. I pulled Festus out in front of me and began to fire. Now, I've never fired an assault rifle before, and I forgot it was set to full auto and not semi auto.

Bullets went flying all over the place, but the zeds. I stopped, set the gun to semi, and fired again. This time went a little better. Luckily I had the silencer. There were still a lot of zeds and they were getting closer.

They were just about on my ass when Hazel ran out with 2 full backpacks. She threw one to me then ran for the exit. I popped a few more shots till the clip was empty then followed Hazel.

I caught up to her outside and we ran. Once we outdistanced the zeds, we snuck into an alley and caught our breath.

Once we had a moment, Hazel pulled a map out of her bag and said, "We need a plan." I could tell that she still wasn't 100% rid of her flu based on the way she was wheezing.

"Head to a new building? It worked last time."

"nah. We need something else; this place is a ghost town. No supplies." She said. "lets head to the highways. Maybe we can find a car for you to fix."

I shook my head. "I'd need a tool bag or something with me for help. It'll take too long to find a running car."

"Yeah" she said. "We'd run into other people before we'd get a working car."

"What about across this bridge here." I said pointing to a spot on the map. "I looks like it leads to a farm area. Cross the river, set up camp in the fields. We can see if anyone or anything is approaching."

Hazel thought to herself for a moment, and then said, "Sound good. Not like we have a better option."

We headed to the bridge that I spotted on the map. It was small, but there was a problem. Once we got 20 feet across, we saw the bridge wasn't complete. There was a huge hole in the middle with no way for us to cross.

"Well shit" I said

Hazel said, "we should probably head back before it gets dark. Find a place to spend the …"

She was interrupted by the sound of a truck engine. We turned around to see a truck is stopping us from leaving the bridge. Hazel and I ducked behind a car that was very close to the edge of the bridge.

I poked my head through the window of the car. I saw a side door on the trucks trailer open up, followed by 5 guys opening fire on the car. I stayed down for a minute, and then returned fire with Festus.

They kept getting closer. I am a terrible shot with this thing. I'm new to shooting this big of a gun, cut me some slack. I looked to Hazel. I was panicking, but she was calm. She looked at me and said, "What do we do?"

I looked down the end of the bridge and said, "Jump"

She looked at me like I was psycho. "Are you crazy? Were right in the river's rapids are right below us and that water is freezing."

I stood up and fired a few more shots. The guys were dangerously close. "Well, I don't think there's a better option. I've been shot before and it's not fun. I'm going"

With that, I jumped off the bridge, closely followed by Hazel. My body turned to ice the instant I hit the water. It must've been 40 degrees. The rapids were tossing Hazel and I like ragdolls. I kept hitting rocks and that did not feel good.

I turned and saw Hazel, in as deep of shit I was. I turned back in time to deflect myself away from a rock.

After what felt like an hour, I cleared the rapids. Somehow, Festus was still on my back. I turned, but I didn't see Hazel. I began to panic. Finally, I spotted her floating lifelessly along the river. I swam to her as fast as I could.

I got her and dragged her onto the shore. Her head was bleeding. She must've hit her head on a rock on the way through the rapids.

Then I noticed she wasn't breathing. Fear ran through me. I couldn't even feel the cold of the water I was so scared. I began to give her CPR. She's not going to die on me like everyone else has. I kept going for about ten second, when I heard a rustling in the bushes.

A man and a woman came out, guns trained on me. I ignored them and kept pushing on Hazel's lifeless chest.

"Put your hands where I can see them." The man said

"She's not breathing" I said

"Put them UP." He shouted, but I kept ignoring him.

He approached me and held the barrel of his gun to the back of my head and said, "Now"

I just kept on giving Hazel CPR. The next thing I knew, I was hit on the back of the head, and was out cold.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Percy

The weirdest part about waking up was the fact that I woke up. Like, seriously, I got bit. I should be roaming around finding some people to eat. Yet, here I am.

The second weirdest part about waking up was the voice. I heard tiny footsteps and a voice shouting, "Daddy, daddy. He's awake."

I groggily sat up. That was the third weirdest part of waking up. The room looked fit for a little girl. There were pink walls, a rather large plastic castle and a bin full of stuffed animals. It was a strange place to be in the end of the world.

I tried to scratch my head, but my right arm was handcuffed to the bedframe. Whoever had me here clearly didn't want me leaving. I was wearing different clothes than I last remember. I had on a red t shirt and perfectly clean blue jeans.

I tried to remember what happened. I remember I was with people. Friends. There was a herd, a weird guy who I shot and I remember I got bit. How, I don't remember. I probably got distracted with the killing of zeds and adrenaline.

I remember Annabeth. I remember I kissed her, and then I left her. I was bit and I knew I would die, so I made damn sure she would live.

A guy rolled in. I mean literally. He was in a wheel chair. He had a beard also, sort of scraggily and long. He rolled up to my bed and said, "Well, you're not dead."

"That was my first thought too." I said, making the man chuckle.

He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a key. He gestured towards the hand cuffs and said, "Sorry about these. If you turned, I didn't want you to chase after me and my daughter."

"That's who I heard running earlier." I said

He wheeled over to the bed frame and unlocked the handcuffs. I shook my hand out and said to him, "Thanks."

"I take it you haven't noticed yet" he said

"What do you mean?"

He shook his head and gestured toward my left side. I was very confused. Annabeth loved my confused face.

I looked down. I saw my legs were fine, my arms were fine, but something did seem off. Then I noticed my wrist was wrapped in white bandages. They covered it completely. Then I noticed I had no left hand.

Just a stump covered by bandaged was all that remained of my left hand. I took me a moment to process what I was looking at. I still felt my hand. Like the fingers. I feel like my fingers were moving, but there was nothing there.

I turned to the wheel chair guy in shock. I jumped out of the bed and, with my right hand, began to choke him. I said, "What the hell did you do to me?"

I pushed down a little harder, then let go. I realized that there was nothing this guy could do if I kept choking him. He coughed a few times then said, "Son, you did that to yourself."

"What?" I asked.

Before the man could answer, a little girl came running up to the door. She had long blonde hair and some freckles on her cheekbones. She looked about seven. She wore black sweat pants and a red t shirt, similar to mine, but smaller.

She said, "I heard a crash, what happened?"

The wheeled man looked at the little girl and said, "Nothing, sweetheart, go back downstairs."

She eyed me suspiciously, and then walked away. There was a moment of silence, followed by the man asking, "What's you name son?"

"Percy."

"I am Chiron." He said. Looking around for a moment, then he said, "Welcome to my home."

A scream came from downstairs. Chiron yelled, "Sarah!"

I ran downstairs and saw two zeds chasing the little girl. I didn't even think. I grabbed the first thing I ran by on my way to her, which was what remained of a two by four. I got to the little girl, Sarah, and picked her up.

She grabbed on to me and I held my stump arm around her. It was hard to balance, but I needed my hand to take care of the zeds. I took the 2 by 4 and swung it as hard as I could at one of the zeds. It took the blow like a champ. The zed stumbled back a little, but, with a lot of its face gone, came after Sarah and me.

I kicked the other zed, knocking it down. I ran over to the stairs and dropped Sarah off. I turned around. She should have run upstairs so I can take care of the zeds.

Both of them were stumbling over to me. I had to get them away from the stairs. I don't know why, but I knew that I had to protect Chiron and Sarah. It was the only way to figure out what was going on.

I took the 2 by 4 and slammed it through one of the zed's face. Blood covered the wood and the furniture around the zed. Unable to remove the board from zed number one, I threw the body into zed number two, pinning it to the floor.

Now that I had a moment to breath, I went into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. Finally, the zed got out from under the body and walked over to me, tripping on itself. I simply stabbed the zed in the forehead and pushed the body over with my stump.

Sighing in relief, I turned to see Sarah standing at the bottom of the stairs, with pure fear in her eyes. She was in shock and was unable to move. She just kept looking at me, then the body, then back to me. She must not have seen this before.

Another zed walked around the corner behind her. There was no time for me to catch it before it got to Sarah. I had one option. I held the knife at the tip and threw it. Time slowed down. I saw the zed, about to bite Sarah; I heard Chiron yelling from upstairs, and Sarah's face in fear as the knife got closer.

The next moment, Sarah screamed as the knife passed right by her ear, and the knife slammed into the face of the zed that was just a few inches behind Sarah. Sarah immediately sprinted upstairs, scared out of her mind.

* * *

A few hours later, the sun set and night revered its ugly head. Sarah refused to step out of her room. I stayed upstairs in the guest room. I couldn't sleep, so I went downstairs. Chiron was down there, trying to put a blanket over a broken window. I walked over and began to help him. He thanked me then rolled over to the torn up couch in the living room. I sat down at the couch near his chair.

Chiron said, "I hope Sarah will be ok."

"She'll be good. The killing just takes some getting used to."

"I guess so" Chiron responded

"I've been wondering, how does after 2 years, Sarah still hasn't seen the… well… bad stuff"

Chiron shook his head and said, "She hasn't left this house in a year in a half, and she doesn't have many memories of beforehand. She's been getting curious about the world though. Its been getting harder to keep her in one place."

"How did you survive? I mean, in your… condition." I asked

Chiron chuckled and said, "Family and friends, they helped. But, sadly, Sarah is the only family I have left now."

Chiron then asked me, "What's your story?"

"What do you mean?"

"Since it began. What's your life been like? "

I pondered for a moment, and then responded, "Hell." I told him about what happened that got me here: the crash, my friends, Annabeth, Leo's capture and rescue, the herd and now. He just nodded in understanding.

Gesturing towards my stump, I asked him, "What did you mean when you said I did this to myself?"

Chiron took a deep breath and responded, "You stumbled in here about a week ago chased by about 100 zeds. You were able to get in the house without being seen. You were grabbing your hand and, apparently, you cut it off. The pain knocked you out instantly."

I looked at my stump, and then a thought occurred to me. "What do you mean 'apparently'?"

"I didn't see you do it. It was Sarah who saw you and convinced me to save you."

"Then I owe her, I guess."

"And I know just how you can repay her." said Chiron

"How"

"Take her with you."

I had no idea what he meant. "With me where?"

"When you leave."

"Why would I leave? I can help you, secure this house. You… you saved my life."

Chiron looked at me and shook his head. "I need more help than you think. And remember, you're crippled too now. I don't know how much you're going to be able help"

"I can't just leave you here"

"Look at me Percy; I'm not going to last long, in here or out is this house. You've seen the zeds that came in here earlier. That was a good day. Usually more are able to break in."

I tried to say no. I wanted to tell him that there has to be another way, but he was right.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked Chiron

"Take Sarah with you. Teach her how to survive. Lord knows I can't. At the very least, keep her alive. Find a good group of people. Make sure she has morals and doesn't turn into a monster."

"Make sure she doesn't turn?" I asked

Chiron looked at his legs, as if reminiscing something. "Not all monsters now-a-days are dead"

He was right. Just thinking about the Farm people who attacked Leo and drew the herd to us reminded me of that. the dead aren't the problem. the living are. if the world was going to get any better, people would need to pull together, not apart.

Maybe that's what Chiron wants. His daughter is young. She will be a part of the future along with myself. If the world is going to get any better, we will need people like Sarah. I said to Chiron, "I will."

Chiron responded, "Thank you."

I began to go to the stairs to go to bed, but another thought popped in my head. "Does Sarah know about your…plan?"

Chiron looked at me. "She's not stupid Percy."


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Frank

As I hammered away at the fence, I had time to think. I knew that it was good that I found a good group to call my friends, but I missed my old ones. Jason, Annabeth, Leo, Percy, Piper, I missed them all. Especially Hazel. Gods damn it I missed her.

I should have been there with her. I lost her in the herd and I got surrounded. Luckily, Percy got me out. I did not know how he found me, but I was sure as hell glad he did. Calypso was with me, but that didn't help much.

It's been so long since I've seen Hazel; I've been forgetting what she looks like. Just a few memories remained: the smell of her hair, her eyes and her smooth skin. That's all I remember. It's been hell.

Thalia was still wary of Calypso and me, but most of the others welcomed us in. Luke has been a real help with that. He would introduce us, help us with work and explain the rules and jobs of the camp. I had two jobs that I would bounce around with.

Sometimes I was a runner. We send 1 person out to find supplies, but not collect them. The person would mark what was found and where, then move on until the needed to return. The runners, usually in a group of 2 or 3, would go out the next day and collect the supplies. It was very efficient.

Sometimes I would be a worker. I would mend the fence; prepare fire pits, anything that had to be done.

Calypso was on cooking duty. She would prepare food caught by the hunters and runners, and she would cook it. She didn't like. She wanted to be on medical duty, since she was one in her pervious group, the farmers who kidnapped Leo, and she has had plenty of experience.

We've only been here a week, but this place was beginning to feel like home, which was a bad sign. Whenever I grow to like a place, it gets taken away. That's just a law of nature in this world. Let me list 3 off the top of my head: the campsite when Percy first showed up, the gated house that was attacked by the herd and my mother's group.

I don't like to think about that time, so I will just say that it ended badly.

There was some shouting. I heard Adrian gathering a lot of attention, which was clearly not an accident. Adrian is a white trash racist asshole. I still don't know why Thalia hasn't killed him or booted him out of the group.

I went over to see what all the commotion was. He was carrying someone on his shoulder. The guy looked Mexican, or South American or something. I couldn't get a good look. He looked lanky and he was clearly out cold. Then I stared listening to what Adrian was saying.

"… Swear to you, this beaner comes out of the river looking like shit. Some chick washes up on shore, clearly dead, and he just sits there"

"I step out tell him to put his hands up. He does. Once I got close, he pulled a gun, and I knocked him out"

I hear murmurs of approval. They agreed with what he did. Adrian was clearly lying. The group just didn't see that. Adrian is the one who is sparking the turmoil between Thalia and the rest of the group. It won't be long before he attempts to take control.

At that moment the guy on Adrian's shoulder woke up, which caused Adrian to drop him on the ground. The Mexican kid looked up at us, and it was Leo. Leo Valdez. He survived. I was in a crowd, so Leo didn't notice me, but I sure as hell noticed him.

It only took Leo a second to get his bearing on the situation, which was new for him. He usually was terrible about dealing with people. He kicked Adrian in the knee, causing Adrian to fall to the ground, yelling in pain.

Leo took the moment while everyone was in shock to get behind Adrian and put him in a chokehold. Leo shouted, "WHERE IS SHE!"

People looked even more confused. Some pulled guns and had them pointed at Leo, but they couldn't get a shot because Adrian was in the way. Thalia stepped out of her tent to assess the situation.

Leo shouted again, "WHERE IS HAZEL."

That sent a shiver up my spine. Hazel was with him. Hazel. Adrian said some girl washed up dead. That was Hazel. Was she dead?

A voice from the crowd said, "Leo?"

Leo stopped for a moment and looked around. Calypso stepped out from the crowd. Their eyes met and it was silent.

Leo whispered, "Holy shit."

Adrian threw an elbow and knocked the wind out of Leo. He pulled a hand gun from his belt and was ready to fire. Before I knew what was going on, I tackled Adrian to the ground. The gun flew from his hands and I thanked those 2 years of football now more than ever.

I looked up, and Calypso was standing in between Leo and Thalia, who pulled her gun. Most people just stood and watched. A few of Adrian's men were about to shoot all 3 of us, when Thalia told them to stand down.

They all did, reluctantly. No matter how much Adrian tried to control people, they feared Thalia more, no matter how much charisma he had. I looked up at Leo and asked him, "Hazel?"

"I don't know." He responded, clearly still in shock that I was here along with Calypso.

I looked down at Adrian, Who was still underneath me, and said, "Where is the girl."

"Screw you, Chink."

I pushed down very hard on the back of his neck. I could kill him if I wanted, and I really wanted to, but he knew where Hazel was. He groaned as I pushed harder. When he still refused to say anything, I pulled my knife from my belt and held the tip at his temple, drawing just a little blood.

Once he felt the knife, he said, "at James River" I knew where that was. I got off him and sprinted.

I flew like the wind. I did not know I could move this fast, but I did. I jumped over fallen trees and swatted branches away. Hazel was close. I would find her and I would do everything to save her.

I didn't dare think of the alternative. Within a minute, I was at the river, and saw sitting on the beach, panting heavily. She was alive. Relief flooded through me. I shouted, "Hazel."

She turned around, looked at me and said, "Frank?" I didn't stop sprinting. When I got to her, I tackled her into a hug. Tears were flowing down my cheeks and the same for her. I kissed her, and she kissed back. Her soft lips made all my memories of her flood back. She was no longer a vacant hole in my mind, but a true part of my life.

I never wanted to be without her again. And I never will be. Our lips separated and we looked at each other. I smiled and she did the same. Whether we were there for 5 second or five minutes, I did not know.

Eventually, Hazel asked me, "Where's Leo?"

I completely forgot about him and the group. I don't know what happened to Leo and Calypso or the group. I got up and said, "This way."

Hand in hand, we ran back to the Thalia's camp. Fearing the worst, I walked around the fence to see that everyone was back to work doing whatever. Phoebe saw us. Not even acknowledging Hazel, she said, "Thalia wants to see you."

That got me nervous. I walked over to her tent, but before I walked in, I said to Hazel, "Before we go in, just know that this girl is downright terrifying."

Hazel looked at me and asked, "How so?"

"You'll see."

We walked in to Calypso holding back Leo and Thalia threatening Adrian. Luke stood out of the way, but ready to attack if things got out of hand. Leo and Adrian both looked like they would tear each other apart given the chance. Once we walked in, Leo looked at Hazel and he immediately smiled.

"I thought you died."

"Me too."

Seeing Hazel calmed Leo down, which seemed a little odd to me. Very odd actually. Did something happen between these two?

No. no way. It's impossible, right?

Once everyone calmed down, Luke took control. He was always the Judge and Jury in these disputes. He had a much more level head that Thalia. It was the one thing she delegated to other people, and only because I'm pretty sure they've got a thing going on.

He looked at Leo first and said, "Tell your side of the story."

"Hazel and I jumped into the river after being trapped on a bridge and shot at. We went through the rapids and came up upon the opening. Hazel came by a few seconds later unconscious. I pulled her up and gave her CPR cause she wasn't breathing. Then, this cunt came up to me and knocked me out before I could make sure she was ok." He spat the words like venom.

Adrian was about to leap after Leo, but Thalia sat his ass down

"The first thing I remember is coughing and seeing Leo getting carried away." said Hazel.

Luke nodded to her, and then turned his attention to Adrian.

"What about you."

"This kid pulled a gun and I knocked him out. Simple as that."

"My gun is the one wrapped around your shoulder. You took it from me while I was trying to keep my friend alive." Leo said

Adrian scoffed. "You really gunna believe this guy Luke. You know their type."

"What do you mean 'their type'" Leo responded

"Mexicans. A useless people."

Leo snapped. He flew at Adrian, but before he could get there, Thalia close lined him. Her arm was that of a brick wall and Leo flew to the ground.

Leo looked up at her and said, "Damn. You got some strong arms."

"You know it" she said.

Calypso helped Leo up, and then Adrian laughed. Thalia turned and stared at him. After a momentary stare off, Adrian backed down.

"All of you out. Frank stay." said Luke

I nodded. Hazel wished me luck as she walked out. Luke and Thalia looked at me. "I don't trust Leo" said Luke.

I scoffed. "And Adrian's that much better."

Thalia shook her head. "I don't like him, but we are stuck with him. People like him"

"How do people like him?"

"I don't know. But he has charisma and people listen to him. Just let this topic go."

Reluctantly, I did. Luke continued, "I don't trust Leo. All of what I've seen from him is violence."

"He wasn't always like that." I said.

Thalia approached me and said, "You know that don't I've a damn about what you've done up until this point. Survival is survival. The only thing I care about is what's best for my people. You vouch for Leo, he can stay. Just know, if this turns out shitty, I will end Leo. I will end Calypso. I will end that little girlfriend of yours. And I. Will. End. You."

With the last word, she put her finger to my throat. Leo has changed. I'm not sure I can keep him under control. But I have to. He would do the same for me in a heartbeat.

"He's cool."

"Ok" said Luke, clapping his hands. "That's settled. You can leave now."

I began to walk out. Before I exited, Thalia stopped me by saying, "And don't think I haven't forgotten what you did to Adrian, because he won't."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Percy

"You can do it Sarah."

"But my hands hurt. Why do I have to do this?" she complained

"Because it's important to learn."

"I want to go home. Back to my dad."

"I'm sorry. We can't. He wanted me to do this."

"I don't understand why?"

"Because it's important."

Sarah groaned and put her hands on the gun the way I showed her. the 9 mm with a silencer was the gun with the least recoil I could find. I was teaching her how to shoot. She wasn't very good, obviously, but it was important to learn.

Sarah took aim again at the target I made at the tree. I kneeled down next to her and straitened her arms. She looked down the sight and backed off, letting her take control. I encouraged her by saying, "Breathe out slowly and pull the trigger."

"You said that 10 times already." She retorted. I shrugged and let her do her thing.

She pulled the trigger and squealed as the recoil hit. I looked at the tree and there was a bullet hole a few inches from the center. She turned and said, "I did it."

I ducked very quickly and crouched behind a tree. "Watch where you're pointing that thing."

"Sorry. Sorry." She said.

I grinned and she handed the gun to me. I told her, "Never point it at someone unless you want to hurt them."

Sarah nodded shyly. She still was getting used to me. In the few days since we've left Chiron, she has been trying to keep her distance from me. I get it. The first time she saw me I threw a knife at her face.

Also, since I'm missing a hand, I look kind of funny.

I've been teaching her to shoot with what little ammo we got left. I'm down too 2 magazines and a few spare rounds. Food has also been hell to find. Luckily we were walking along a river, so water has been ok, but food is tough.

A few squirrels and rabbits are all I've been able to catch, and they don't last long. I haven't eaten in a day, trying to make sure Sarah has enough. We have both lost weight and I'm beginning to feel dizzy.

Sarah and I set up camp. Just a small fire was all that we could afford. No tent. No blankets. We just have to sleep on the grass. Cold and wet grass is not very comfortable.

Sarah kept groaning in her sleep, clearly uncomfortable.

I stayed up and kept watch. All I wound up doing is watching my stump. It is still weird. I keep reaching to grab something out of my pocket, but it just slides off. I get confused for a moment then I remember there is nothing there.

Sarah is also staring at it. I catch her sometimes, and she just acts like she wasn't looking. It is kind of funny.

The next morning I woke up to Sarah shaking my shoulder. When I woke up, I heard it to. Zeds. Not a lot, but they were still there. I grabbed my knife, but remained leaning against the tree. If I stood up, I would be seen and just drew the zeds to me.

Sarah tried to whisper something to me, but I silently shushed her. One of the zeds stumbled about 5 feet from us, but it must not have noticed two meals, so he left.

Once the zeds were out of earshot, I stood up and packed our supplies, which was practically nothing. My 9 mm, the last squirrel and my knife.

"Let's go" I said

"Where" Sarah asked.

"Away from here"

"Why"

"Staying on the move is the best way to survive. Stay in one spot, the zeds or other people will find you."

"can't we just stay for a little while?" Sarah asked.

I began to become annoyed. "No"

"But I'm hungry" she complained

"Well I'm hungry too but at least I'm not bitching about it." I snapped back. As soon as I said it, I realized that I shouldn't have. Sarah looked hurt, but she kept her head down and walked on.

We hit a road and walked with it for a while. We could search cars for anything that might be useful, but found nothing. After a few years into the apocalypse, there is no more easy scavenging.

I caught another rabbit and snapped its neck. I hated doing it but we needed dinner. Around midday, we stopped and cooked up the last of our food. Sarah refused to eat.

"Eat" I said encouragingly, but she shook her head.

I sighed and said, "I'm sorry I snapped earlier."

"He was right." Sarah responded.

I asked her, "who"

"My dad. He… he said that outside the house was dangerous and scary. How the house would be safe."

"Times change" I responded

"Why don't people just work together? We can start a new group and help each other. "

I have thought about this myself at the beginning, but the world taught is otherwise. "Because everyone is just as scared as you."

"How are you still so brave and strong? How are you not scared?"

I chuckled. "Sarah, I'm scared. Every day, I'm scared someone will kill me every night, when I sleep, I scared I'll wake up and find you dead, or worse. There is nothing but fear anymore. The only thing left is to find someone you care about and make sure that you keep them safe."

_Like Annabeth. _I thought to myself. I failed her and I thought that I would have nothing. I don't know if she is still alive, or what happened to her, but I will make damn sure that Sarah survives this.

In the late afternoon, Sarah and I were still waking on the road. For once, she wasn't trying to keep her distance. She would crack jokes and, for one, looked not scared of me.

Smoke was appearing from the roof of a building. It was a three story apartment building. I smelled barbeque. Whoever was up there, had food, which is what we desperately needed. Sarah almost ran up there, but I held her back.

"Let's take a look at these people first." I said, pointing to the roof of across the street. Sarah looked disappointed, but followed me. I broke into the building, which looked like an office building and we made our way up to the roof.

Once we got up there, Sarah tried to look, but I wouldn't let her. I didn't know what these people were, so I didn't want Sarah seeing anything, too violent. I she laid down on the couch and took a nap.

I remained up and watched them. Here is what I saw: 3 men, 4 tents, a fire pit and a deer. It was dead and partially skinned. That dear could feed Sarah and me. There were also cans, a stack of them. About a week's worth if rationed correctly. Guns lay on everyone's lap.

I could see other things but they were only specs. I needed binoculars to see further. I sat down in a chair watched Sarah. She looked comfortable for once, and I was glad to see that.

20 minutes later, I heard a scream. A woman, clearly scared for her life. I got up and looked out the window. I couldn't see anything, but one of the tents on the other roof was shaking violently. She yelled again. There were only 2 men outside, and they were talking as it nothing was going on.

Now I knew what the 4th tent was for.

I covered my eyes. I didn't want to look. I walked over to Sarah who was, thankfully, sleeping through this. I sat down next to her and closed my eyes as well. I was out cold once the screaming stopped.

I dreamt about Annabeth. I don't remember what happened but I knew that she was there. I woke up and it was night time. Sarah was still asleep. Her head was on my thigh, using it as a pillow. She looked peaceful.

I knew what I had to do. I got up slowly, softly putting her head back on the couch. I walked down the stairs and across the street.

I got up the stairs and quietly got on top of the roof. I sliced their throats. i went into the 4th tent and slowly opened it. The woman shrunk back into the tent and went into the fetal position. I cut the ropes tying her up. She looked at me, and I said "Run" she got up and ran out the door.

I looked at my handiwork. 3 dead assholes, a saved woman and food galore. It was a good day. I gathered as much food as I could carry and walked out.

Sarah woke up the next morning to see me cooking food, cans and dear. She was ecstatic at first devouring more than me.

But her eyes widened in realization. "Percy where did this food come from?"

Chiron was right. She's not stupid. I didn't answer.

"Percy?" she insisted.

"Eat." I responded.

"But…"

"Sarah, please put the god damn food in your mouth." I said. I wasn't trying to sound bitter, but it did.

Sarah reluctantly continued eating.

We made camp on the top floor of that building. The next day, I saw a man go up to the roof with the dead bodies. He looked shocked, angry and sad at the same time. He must be a friend of theirs.

That night, I stayed on edge. I wasn't sure if he saw me. If not, he definitely saw our camp. I didn't do a good job disguising it.

I didn't sleep all night. Luckily, Sarah did. If he came, I would be ready. And just my luck, there were footsteps at about 1 or 2 in the morning, followed by the door being kicked open.

I pulled my gun and fired, but I was off to the right. I'm not used to one handed shooting yet. He pulled a pistol as well, but I jumped out of the way in time, dragging Sarah with me. I ran behind cubicles as bullets flew past me.

Sarah was freaked out and had no idea what was going on. I shushed her and gave her a hand gesture that told her to stay still. She nodded and I stood up. I fired a few shots off in the general direction of him.

He ducked and I ran to another cubical. I heard a crash to my right. I stood up and fired. It was a mistake. The other guy appeared to my left and shot me. He just grazed my leg, but it still hurt. I got behind cover again.

I reloaded. My last mag. I had my gun and limped to my left, which was where he was. I got to the corner of a cubicle and prepared myself. I stood up and pointed my gun at him. I didn't have a shot.

He was holding Sarah in front of him with a gun to her head. I kept my gun trained at him. I couldn't take a shot with one hand. I didn't trust my aim. Sarah was struggling to get away, but the man was too strong for her.

The man grinned and said, "Looks like we got ourselves a Mexican standoff."

"I guess we do" I responded.

After a moment of silence, I asked. "What do you want?"

"All your shit and both of you dead." He said, pulling the hammer back on his gun.

"You won't do it." I said.

"You killed my friends, it only fair that I killed your friends. However, it looks like you have no friends. So I will just kill you instead."

He pulled the trigger.

_Click._

"Looks like your empty." I said

"I can still break her neck. Just one quick twist." As he said the last word, he tightened his hand around her jaw. Sarah let out a yelp.

"Stop" I said.

I pointed the gun away from him. I dropped it to the floor.

"Kick it over." Responded the guy. Reluctantly, I did. As it got to his feet, he let Sarah go. Before he could pick it up, Sarah kicked it away. As the gun slid across the floor, I charged him.

With all my strength, I knocked him over a chair flipping him over. Unfortunately, I fell with him. I got to my knees and pulled my knife. I swung down at him, but he interlocked my arm with his legs, avoiding the knife and putting me in an arm bar.

My shoulder erupted in pain. He was about to dislocate my shoulder, but I punched him in the gut with my stump.

He buckled and I got my arm to escape. We both stood up and I still had my knife, swung at him to get him to back up, but he grabbed my arm mid swing and punched me in the face, dazed, he tackled me, and the knife flew from my hand.

He held me to the ground. I tried to push him off, but he was too strong. Using his free hand, he punched me again in the face. My head recoiled and hit the floor below me. How I stayed conscience, I don't know.

I couldn't do anything. I was too dazed. He wrapped his hand around my throat and began to choke me. I struggled as much as I could, but my vision tunneled and all sound stopped, where before, I could hear him choking me and my flailing.

For some reason, he got off me. I coughed and coughed. Barely staying awake. I don't know how long I was on the ground for, but I looked over and saw the ragdoll. He was dead. I looked over and saw Sarah.

Her hands were shaking violently as she held a smoking gun, my 9 mm that she kicked away. There was a little blood on her hands from the splatter, but otherwise she was clean. She blue eyes were wide with fear.

I hear her mumble, "I… I sh-shot that guy."

Coughing, I responded, "yeah (spit blood out of my mouth) yeah you did."

She began to cry. I tried to comfort her, but I was too dazed to do anything.

After that, I fell unconscious.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: The General idea for these next few chapters came from Slain-Dr3am1319 and a Guest. Idk who the Guest is, but you know who you are and you're awesome. I did change the ideas a little to fit my plotline, but it was a huge help. Thanks. **

**I did add my own stuff. It is inspired by a scene from The Last of Us. **

Chapter 22

Annabeth

Nico and I have been on the road for a while. I've actually lost track of time. It's all been just a blur. Luckily, we still had is amazing car, so we've been ok, but we've been running on fumes for the past two miles. We haven't been able to siphon any out of abandoned cars. Most of them are already tapped out.

We don't talk much. He always have a stoic look on his face, like he's always trying to either keep from raging out or breaking down crying. Frankly, I don't know which one is worse. Whatever happened to this kid must have been brutal, and I've been too afraid to ask.

I spend most of my time either lost in thought, playing mind games of chess or planning for the future, which for me is thinking about where my next meal is coming from. Speaking of food, Nico had a decent supply of food and water.

Nico pulled up along another car. He got out and went to the trunk. he pulled out a hose and a needle. He was going to puncture the bottom of the gas tank to get the fuel out. I got out and kept watch. A few zeds staggered behind the car, but they were too far away to be a problem.

I heard liquid spilling out, followed by Nico whispering, "Fuckin right." To himself. After about 5 minutes, Nico had filled his tank a quarter full. It was the boost he needed. We got back in, he started the engine and we were off.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to drive very long. There was a huge pileup of abandoned cars blocking the freeway. I pulled out a map and examined it for a minute.

"We got two options." I said. "A) we backtrack 30 miles to another exit and keep driving,"

"We'll be out of gas again before we make it very far." Nico interrupted.

"Ok then," I continued. "Or B) into New York City."

Nico thought for a moment, then said, "screw it" and pulled off the highway and into the city.

We drove for a while. I'd like to spend a while describing what post-apocalyptic New York looked like, but I'm sure you get the idea, overgrown weeds, buildings in dismay, bullet holes and scorch marks from when the Military napalmed the city in hopes to stop the infection (like in TWD).

Nico stopped the car suddenly, and then I saw it too. A woman. She was hunched over as if in pain, and held her side with both hands. Her side was a crimson shade of red. She was yelling at us, begging for help. Nico just stared at her.

"Slowly put your seatbelt on." Nico said firmly.

"Why? Shouldn't we help her." I said as I slowly put my seatbelt on. Nico did the same, and then said to me, "She's not hurt."

What Nico did next scared the living shit out of me. He floored the car. I lurched backwards as we accelerated towards the woman. Faintly, over the sound of the engine, I heard the woman say, "oh shit." She then sprinted the other was, clearly no longer worrying about her side.

Nico was right. She wasn't hurt. Then why was she acting like she was? I answered my own question the next second.

The buildings here overshadowed the streets perfectly. Once we got out, her people were going to ambush us.

Sure as shit, the glass windows broke and bullet holes riddled the hood of the car. Gunshots filled the air. Nico drifted the car around the corner, only to be met with another blockade, which we crashed into. The wall cracked a little, but stood firm. I slowly got out, followed by Nico.

The car was totaled. There was no way we could get it running again, even if we had time. The people who ambushed us were closing in fast with cars of their own. I got behind the car for cover and Nico did the same.

I had a 9 mm pistol with 2 clips left. Nico had a Pistol of his own, along with a hunting rifle. Gods know how many shots he had left. If only Frank was here. He was a hell of a shot.

They opened fire. There was nothing we could do but fire back. I saw Nico fall backwards. When I turned to look, I saw blood spattered all over the wall behind him. He fell back, grabbing his shoulder.

I shot once more and went over to him. I pulled his shirt collar down. There was an entrance and exit wound, so it can be treated. However, don't have the time or the supplies to do so.

Just my luck, a pack of zeds came in from the left, drawing the attention from the gunmen. I yanked up Nico, causing him to yelp, and helped him into an alley. I got him behind to begin climbing a fire escape. He moved very slowly because of his bum shoulder. I tried to encourage him, but I knew it wouldn't work.

Two people hopped into the alley with us. I pulled my gun and shot a few times. I needed to draw their attention so they don't see Nico. I shot 2 more times when they popped their heads out.

I was empty at that point. I looked up and saw Nico climbing into a window. Why was he doing that, I asked myself. Then I realized the son of a bitch was ditching me. I yelled for him, but he just kept going. I heard footsteps in the alley. I pulled my knife and got ready to pounce.

Once he was a few inches from he, I jumped out and swung my knife. I got one of them in the leg. Then tackled the other one, I girl, a few years older than me. she knocked the knife out of my hand and we fell.

I head some other shouts, but I was too busy to focus on that. After rumbling on the ground for a few seconds, she had me in a chock hold. After choking for a few second she dropped me to the ground.

I looked up and I saw a gun to my forehead. On my knees in the middle of a city with a gun to my head was not a surprising way to die.

I closed my eyes and waited.

_**BANG!**_

I opened my eyes. I wasn't dead. He was. I heard another gunshot and the girl behind me fell back dead. I looked up and saw Nico holding his smoking hunting rifle. He yelled at me, "Get up here."

I got to the ladder and climbed, while Nico covered me. I got up and Nico shot again. He then climbed through a window while I closely followed. We ran for a while, on the roofs and in the alleys and through buildings.

We stopped once we were sure we lost the ambushers. The whole time we were running, Nico was favoring his right shoulder, since his left had a gunshot wound. I sat him down and had him take off his shirt.

I ripped off part of his sleeve and used it as a bandage. Nico groaned. I asked him, "what?"

"I liked that shirt." Nico responded.

I grinned and said, "Don't get shot next time."

This was the first time I've seen him make anything close to a joke. It was nice that he finally did something normal. Once I had finished with his shoulder, I said, "rest for now. You need it."

Nico closed his eyes and soon fell asleep. I stayed up and kept watch. I thought about Nico. Why did he come back? He could have made it without me. Knowing his personality, I thought he was going to leave me. Thankfully, he didn't but I'm so glad that he did.

Nico the shot bolt upright, panting and sweating. He was mumbling about something, but I had no idea what it was. I came over to him and began to comfort him. Out of nowhere, he began to cry. I just stayed there and soothed him back to sleep.

I don't know what his nightmares are about. Whatever caused him to shut the world out probably had something to do with it.

The next morning, I awoke to Nico keeping watch, the same way I left him last night. I yawned and Nico turned to look at me. Once I had woken up a bit, we packed up and got on the move.

We talked a little about what to do. "We need to get out of the city," I said.

"Yup. Where to after?" Nico asked

After a moment of thinking, I said, "back down Long island."

"Why" he asked

"I have some friends done there. I was hoping that I could find them."

Nico was quiet for a moment, and then said, "Well, I guess I'm going with you."

The way he said it sounded weird. Was he planning on leaving me, after he saved me twice? "You don't have to." I told him

"Well, I got nothing better to do, so why not. It's not like I'm really going to make it to California anyway"

I looked at him quizzically. "Why California."

Nico took a deep breath, then said, "my dad lives out there. The only reason I came here is to visit my half sister, Hazel."

Suddenly, I put something together. Something Hazel told me about a brother. "Hazel Levesque?"

Nico stopped dead in his tracks. "You know her?"

"I did. We were in a group together, we got split up." I told him.

Nico looked down in despair. He asked me, "is she alive?"

"I don't think so" I responded.

We stayed quiet for a while as we walked along the rooftops. We were nearing the edge of the city when we hit a wall. A building was leaning on another; barely staying remaining from falling over there was no way to climb up or down it.

"Should we backtrack?" I asked

"no." he said. "If we do, we won't make it out of the city by nightfall. We could climb across that ledge there, to the other building. That should be faster."

"You sure that's the best idea?"

"Nope" said Nico as he climbed onto the ledge and slowly slid my way across the ledge. I slowly followed suit. I kept one hand on the wall behind me and the other out in front for balance.

We had made it about halfway across the ledge when I said, "Hey, I never asked you, how did you know that woman wasn't hurt back in the street yesterday?"

Nico kept shuffling across as he bit his tongue. "Nico" I asked after a moment.

Nico then responded, "Let's just say I've been on the other side of that before trick before."

I left it at that. I didn't want to push him.

We had made it to the other building. Nico stepped over and turned a corner. I heard him break a window and climb in. I rounded the corner myself before I heard the sounds of fighting. I couldn't see anything, but I knew I needed to get in right away. I made my way to the window and crouched to see what was happening. Nico was holding a blond guy with a knife to his throat, while a little boy, no more than 7 years old held a gun on them.

I was about to climb in when the blond kid head butted Nico, sending him backwards. Right into me. My foot slipped off the ledge. I couldn't grab onto the ledge with my hand. I screamed as I fell.

A hand shot out and grabbed my wrist and I grabbed on to his. I looked up and saw Nico, bending over the windowsill with his stomach to the sky. His was slipping.

I heard and other grunt and say another hand shoot out. I grabbed onto it and felt myself being hoisted up. He grabbed my waist and helped me get through the window. Once I was safe from not falling, I fell to the floor, gasping for air.

It only just hit me that I could have fallen to my death. That was terrifying. I looked up and saw that Nico was still in the windowsill. He had blood all over his stomach and a rather large piece of glass was sticking through him. I ran to him and pulled him off. He shouted very loudly it hurt him so much.

Once he was up, he collapsed to the floor. I didn't know what to do. He was bleeding so badly.

"Annabeth?" I heard a woman's voice behind me say.

I turned around and saw who the voice belonged to.

"Piper?"


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Sarah

"Wake up. Wake up. Please."

I shook harder and harder, but Percy wouldn't budge. Eventually, I gave up. I just paced for a while, holding back tears.

"You gotta tell me what to do. Tell me what to do." I yelled at him, but nothing happened. I breathed very heavily. Soon, I was hyperventilating.

Remember what daddy said, 'close your eyes, clear your mind, take slow deep breaths.' I tried to do all those things, but as soon as closed my eyes, I saw a flash, blood fly and the man's body go limp. My eyes flew open and I tripped backwards over myself. I sat back against a wall, my breathing only got worse.

I was looking around, desperately hoping Percy would get up and help me, but I knew that wouldn't happen. I tried to close my eyes again, but I saw the same images again. My vision began to tunnel. My heart was hammering in my ears.

I tried to close my eyes twice more, but every time I kept seeing those images kept popping into my head. Eventually, I was able to calm down. Percy was still knocked out. Eventually, I gave up and went to sleep on the couch.

Percy must have woken up because he wasn't where I left him the night before. I searched the whole floor and eventually found him in the stairwell.

"What are you doing down here?" I asked

He looked at me strangely and replied, "I… don't remember."

I helped him to his feet and guided him upstairs. He sat down on the couch and asked me, "How long was I out?"

I shrugged. "You were gone when I woke up. Anywhere from a few minutes to hours."

"How did it happen?" he asked me.

I sighed. I wasn't sure what to say. I told him the facts, the guy that came up, the gunfight and the wrestling match. I left out the part about me shooting him. I didn't want to talk about that. My hands were still shaking.

He simply thought that he had killed the man. I was ok with that. He was so strong and brave in any situation. I am nothing like him, but I wish I was.

He looked at me and said, "I think I have a concussion."

"A what?" I asked

"It's like a big bruise on my brain. I can cause memory loss and confusion, which is what I'm having right now."

"Oh." I said.

Percy looked at me with concern. "What's wrong?" He asked.

He didn't want to hear about my silly problems. Like daddy said, I need to grow up. This is a part of growing up, I guess.

"Nothing." I said. Percy looked at me quizzically. I walked away before he could ask me anything else. He stood up and tried to follow me. I turned to him and said, "Nope. You need to rest. That head won't heal itself."

Percy opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. He sat down while groaning, "Yes mom."

It was like that for about a week or so. Percy kept trying to do things, I kept shutting him down. Percy would always try to make me laugh, to lighten the mood, but I wouldn't.

I went out on my own once. I was scary yet exciting. I didn't get much in terms of food or water, but I found some Tylenol tor Percy's constant headache. He thanked me when I got back.

I have been keeping my distance from him. He keeps trying to talk to me about what happened the night he got knocked out. He is starting to remember what happened, and I think he knows what I did.

Percy was getting better. I began talking to him again, but it was only small talk, like best way for a small person like me to take out a zed. He told me to kick them it the knee so that they fall, then I have an easy stab at the head. He said that it can also work on people, but not as well.

Once Percy was getting in better health, we moved. That office became a dump. Also, every day, more and more zeds made their way to us. I almost couldn't finish them off a few times. I was afraid of what I was doing. It all traces back to that night. I can never stop thinking about it.

I killed someone.

That was the first time I was able to admit it to myself. I ended someone's life. That is not what people do. Only god can end life, not me.

I held it together on the outside. At least, I think I did. Percy could tell something was up, but I was too stubborn to let him know.

We left the office. We were on the road for a day when we ran into others. A loud crash got our attention. Percy pulled me into an alley. There was a zed in there. I did my knee kick and stab. The smell and the blood almost made me collapse again, but I held it together.

"Fuckin' A man. Who knew how many zeds you drew with that bull shit?" a voice shouted.

I pulled my gun, getting ready to shoot, even though I knew I wouldn't be able to pull the trigger. Percy stopped me. He peeked around the corner, the slowly slid back out of sight. I looked at him, waiting to see what he wanted me to do.

He just shushed me and cupped his ear. He wanted me to listen to them.

They kept talking. They said a lot of bad things. There were a lot of 'F' words an even a few others that I didn't know. Eventually, the conversation between the 3 men climaxed.

"I know you've been stealing from the rest of us, Steve knows it too, he's just too much of a pussy to confront you"

"Don't bring me in on this man"

There was a loud _Whack, _followed by the sound of someone hitting the floor inside the room.

Someone followed by saying, "shut up."

Then there was a gunshot. Percy half dragged me out of the alley and we began to runoff. There was more shouting and a few more gunshots, but I was too afraid to look back. I didn't want to think about what happened.

Once we stopped, I broke down crying. It was too much. 'Why did I have to do these things? Why are people so mean?' Many more thoughts like that when through my head.

Percy consoled me. He held and shushed me. I just needed a shoulder to cry on. Once I calmed down, I asked Percy, "Why did you make me stay and listen to that."

Percy sighed. "I didn't have time to explain to you then. When you run into a new group, scout them out if you can. Listen to their conversations. That is a lesson that I learned the hard way. There are still good people."

"Like you?" I asked.

Percy paused a moment, as if trying to figure out what to say. Eventually, Percy said, "I'm not a good person. I had a friend once, Annabeth. I'm sure I've told you about her. She was a good person. I've done some… bad things to survive"

I looked to the ground. "So have I" I responded.

"What do you mean?" Percy responded. The way he said it made it clear that he already knew that I killed that man, but he just wanted me to say it.

"I killed someone," I said very quickly and quietly, that it came out like a shriek.

"What?" Percy asked.

"I killed the man that knocked you out." I said more clearly, with a tear running down my face.

He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into a hug. Percy was perfect for this. He's the big brother that I always wanted. My friends used to always complain about their siblings, but anything is better than being lonely.

Eventually, I lay down on his lap. I asked him, "How do you get over the things that you've done?"

Percy took a moment to think. He said, "I don't know really. I guess you just learn to live with it."

I sighed. I don't know what I was expecting, some deep prophetic statement, I guess. But, like he said, Percy is just as scared as I am.

After our rest, we packed up and began to walk again. I asked Percy, "Where are we going."

"Well," Percy said, "where's the best place to go in the zombie apocalypse?"

I Shrugged and said, "I don't know."

"The Living room." Percy looked at me expectantly. I took me a moment to get the joke. The LIVING room. So that we can LIVE.

I began to giggle. It was such a dumb joke, but I couldn't help myself. Percy grinned and said, "Today is gunna be a good day. I can feel it."


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Jason

After the initial shock of seeing Annabeth alive, Piper immediately went to help the goth kid. I took Timmy out of the room so that he doesn't see this. The kid, maybe 14 or 15 years old, was bleeding profusely.

It was a good call because a few zeds had come out and into the hall, clearly intrigued by all the commotion. I pulled my gun out to shoot them, but Timmy drew first. Luckily we had found silencers on our travels. He shot one and it him it in the mouth, not enough to kill, since it had to be the brain. He shot again, hitting the zed in an eye. It dropped dead.

I pulled my machete from the holder on my back and began to walk forward. The first zed's head was cut off and the second I stabbed through the temple. As I pulled the machete out, blood and brains spilled to the floor.

I went back in the room where Piper and Annabeth were able to slow the bleeding. The wound looked a lot worse than it actually was. Timmy and I kept an eye out while Piper and Annabeth kept working.

About 10 minutes later, the bleeding had stopped and Piper and Annabeth began to wash the blood off their hands. I looked at their handiwork, and it looked ok. I mean, the kid was gunna have a brutal scar and he looked as pale as a ghost, but he would be alright.

I heard Piper an Annabeth talking like old friends, and I decided to let them talk. However, Timmy seemed excited to meet someone new and went to talk to them. I overheard bits of their conversation, 'how did you get away from the herd' and 'who's this guy' and 'where's Percy' were pretty much all I have heard.

My eyes closed and soon I was asleep, only to be woken up by Annabeth. She said, "Am I not interesting enough for you?"

"You know that was the first time I was able to close my eyes in 2 days" was my response.

Piper glared at me, "and whose fault is that?"

I just slowly raised my hand. It's true. Even when I was able to sleep, it's never been for long. Something always happens, whether its zeds, people on whatever. I've been either too afraid to sleep or on the run.

I know that Piper is more than capable of taking watch, but I can't sleep even when she does let me. Maybe if we were at a walled area or someplace where I'd know we'd be safe I could, but the road is never safe. New York City is even worse.

Before I realized it, I had fallen asleep mid conversation. Piper and Annabeth must have let me sleep because I woke up with Piper's head in my lap. She was snoring softly, but I almost couldn't hear it over the sound of Timmy's snoring.

For an 8 year old boy, he snores like a mother fucker. That might be one of the reasons I haven't been able to sleep. Annabeth was pacing when I woke up.

"How long was I out" I asked.

"A few hours" she said bluntly.

"Good enough" I responded as I slowly stood up, trying not to disturb Piper. She groaned in her sleep, but she didn't wake up. I walked over to the window where Annabeth stood, eyeing the moon.

"whatcha thinking about." I asked

"Our place in the universe."

"Really?"

"Fuck no." she responded. "How cliché do you think I am."

"Well you've been gone for a month, and a lot can happen. For all I know, you could be a stone cold bitch now"

"Wasn't I always one?"

"nah. Well…" she eyed me, very curious about what I was going to say next.

"Well what" she asked. I was flustered. I knew I was on thin ice here. If I said something wrong, who knew where she would stab me.

"All I'm saying is you could have been a little nicer to me."

"Bitch, I'm a ray of sunshine." She said

"What about when you cock blocked me? That was not a nice thing to do."

"When did I ever cock block you." She asked

" 'keep it in your pants Grace' I believe that was the quote." That was what Annabeth said to me and Piper the night Percy showed up. The realization crept across her face. She does remember.

In a very sarcastic voice, she responded, "oh dear, I'm so sorry you didn't get laid because of me, even though you practically ran from the tent 2 seconds later."

We were quiet for a while after that. Talking about that group, hell I've been looking back on it as the good old days. The only other group I was with was when I was with my sister. We had a group for a long time, a big one too.

Unfortunately, I didn't know where they were. The last time I saw my sister, she was left to fight another group with her boyfriend Luke. She saved me and several others as we escaped. I still don't know if she made it out.

"Who's the kid?" Annabeth asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"That's Timmy. We met him on the road with another woman. She didn't make it and we took him in."

She nodded in understanding. "Who's the Goth guy?" I asked her

"Nico. He rescued me. He may not seem like it, but he is terrifying. I'm just glad I'm on his good side."

'Total bull' I thought to myself. There is no way a scrawny kid like that can be scary.

After another minute of silence, Annabeth walked over to the armchair and fell asleep. I guess it was now my turn to take watch.

Piper woke up the minute the sun rose. She saw that I wasn't sleeping, again. Usually, she would get pissed at me, but this morning, she just sat on my lap and put her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and rubber her arm.

"Annabeth seems different." She said to me.

"I noticed." I responded.

"When? You fell asleep in the first few minutes."

"We talked a little bit during the night. She seemed kind of distant and way more sarcastic than usual."

"I noticed that too." She replied. "What do you think happened to her?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's got something to do with her new boyfriend." I said, eyeing the Goth kid. A little color was returning to his face and it looked like he might come to today.

"That's not her boyfriend." Piper said to me. "She's still broken up about Percy."

"How can you tell?"

"Woman's intuition." She said, slightly mocking me.

"I've got plenty of experience with that." I said, causing Piper to nod her head sarcastically.

The Goth kid began to stir slightly. I think he will wake up at some point soon. Timmy fell off the couch in his sleep. Piper and I chuckled as Timmy groaned. The resulting thud woke Annabeth, who snapped awake in an instant and had her gun drawn.

Once she saw that we weren't in danger, she put it back in her belt loop. Timmy grabbed his knee, which is what he landed on, and muttered, "fuck"

"That's a bad word," Piper said to Timmy.

"But Jason says that all the time." Timmy complained.

"That's because I'm older than you, and I don't say it all the Time. I try to watch my mouth"

"You're not doing a good job." Timmy muttered.

"So what's the plan" Annabeth said, interrupting our banter.

"Well," I said, "we should get moving once he wakes up."

"He won't be able to move quickly, at all" Annabeth said.

"You seriously think staying in this city is going to be any better for him." Piper responded, which ended her argument.

"He is pretty small. I could carry him." I said

"Anything to get us out of here quicker," Timmy said, "This place is scary."

"We have 2 miles of ground to cover and who knows what else we'll run into." Annabeth pointed out. "You sure you could carry him for that long?"

"probably." I responded

After a moment of silence, Annabeth said, "alright. Let's go."

I slowly picked up the kid over my shoulder, which caused him to stir. I heard him half consciously mumble, "wha- ow," then he fell back asleep. We slowly made our way out of the building, with Annabeth up front, Timmy behind her and Piper covering behind us.

We could hear zeds in the near pitch black staircase. Annabeth was able to take them out silently, for the most part. I tripped once on a stair, and we had to speed up before we would get spotted. Eventually, we made it out and walked for an hour or so.

Piper and I tried to make idle conversation with Annabeth, but she just responded with short, clipped sentences in a passive aggressive form of, "shut up."

My legs were dead. Carrying Nico was easy at first, the kid weighed maybe 120 pounds, but overtime, my legs were getting weaker and weaker. He was starting to wake up also, but he wouldn't be able to walk on his own anyway.

At one moment, he rolled off my shoulder. I bent down to pick him up, but he tried to punch me in the face. He nicked my nose and fell ass. Nico tried to jump at me, but he curled into a ball and cried in pain. Annabeth went over to deal with him; while Piper and I made sure nothing was attracted by the noise.

I heard Annabeth talking to Nico, must be letting him know that Piper and I were not going to hurt him. My nose still hurt, and it was getting worse. Piper looked at me and shrieked.

"What?" I asked

"Your nose, it's broken." She said.

"Really" I said as I touched my nose and immediately pulled it away. I felt like someone stuck a knife through my nose. "I guess the kid didn't nick me." I said to Piper as she got ready to fix my nose.

Too late. At least 15 zeds came out of the alley near us. I would have shot, but Timmy had the only silencer, and more zeds would be drawn to us, which would put us even deeper into a hole.

I rushed over, broken nose and all, and dragged Nico to his feet. I wrapped one arm under his arm and he put his arm around my neck. I was basically carrying him since his feet dragged behind him.

We ran up the street together, but I was lagging behind. Nico kept groaning in pain. He could barely move the pain in his side was too much. Eventually, we had to make a stand. We lured them into an alley, so that there was only one space for them to come through.

I rolled a garbage dumpster to block the zeds route to us. i turned around to see Annabeth checking a door. "It's locked. There's no escape route." She shouted as she continuously banged on the door.

"Timmy," I shouted, "get ready to shoot." Timmy shakily grabbed his gun and gulped.

Everyone pulled their weapons and got ready to shoot. I checked my clip. "I got 5 shots left." I said

"7" said Piper

"4" said Annabeth, "Make every shot count."

Timmy must have been too scared to talk, and Nico was barely able to move, so he was screwed.

I aimed as the garbage can began to get shoved out of the way. I took a shot, but it grazed the zed in the mouth, not a kill shot. Another shot came from behind me, and the zed fell to the ground. Timmy had missed all of his shots.

2 more popped out from behind the dumpster and 2 more shots came, this repeated for 10 seconds, but I was out of ammo. I dropped my gun and began to re-push the dumpster in their way. I couldn't move it. There were too many zeds. I pushed as hard as I could, but it wouldn't move.

"I'm out," shouted Annabeth

"Me too," said Piper.

We all tried to push the dumpster, but there were too many zeds. We were fucked

Out of nowhere, 2 more shots were fired. We all turned to see the locked door open, and a woman firing a rifle. We all turned in shock. She said, "yeah, I get it. I'm hot. Let's go." We followed her as fast as we could, dragging Nico behind me.

We ran for a while, climbed a ladder and ran along rooftops until we returned down a building near the bridge we were heading towards. She turned to us and said, "Wait here for a second." We blindly obeyed.

Inside the entered a room, we heard talking, and eventually, she came back out and said, "Put all your weapons on the ground and come in."

We did, however, I kept a knife in my boot. I had no idea what we were walking into, and I wasn't about to walk in unarmed. I went in last; just to be sure no one would do anything.

She widened the door for us to bring Nico in. His wound reopened and was bleeding slightly. We needed to get him stitched up.

I was directed to a desk where I laid Nico down and a guy began to work on Nico. Annabeth went over to help since she knew what to do.

Finally, I got a glance at where I was. There were 5 people in a large open conference room. I sat stood next to Piper and Timmy while we waited for… something.

The woman who guided us here entered another room, and walked back out with a man. He was maybe early 20's with blond hair and a scar on the side of his face. I recognized him, and he did me.

"Jason?"

"Luke?"

**AN: SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG WITH THIS CHAPTER. I'LL TRY TO UPDATE MORE OFTEN**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Leo

Everyone was suspicious of me. No matter how much I tried, all I got was nervous stares and suspicious looks, especially from that asshole, Adrian, and his friends. Calypso says to ignore it, but I can't.

Frank has been trying to get people to see my good side, but I feel like he's only doing it half-heartedly. I know he's still the same old, baby faced china man I knew, but even he seems suspicious of me, but not for the same reasons as the rest. If it was the same reason, he wouldn't have vouched for me to stay.

Calypso has been the supportive one. We are forced to share a tent, not that I'm complaining, she's beautiful and loves me for some reason. Gods, it's amazing to have her back. It's a lot like the way we met. I'm the one who knows no one and is not liked, but at least I'm not getting my face punched in.

I was washing clothes with Calypso when Adrian walked up to us. This asshole thinks he's hot shit, but I can see right through his racist ass. Get him alone, one on one; let's just say humpty dumpty will have a great big fall.

"He's in his natural habitat boys" I heard him mutter as he passed by, followed by a few chuckles from his gang. There were seven of them, all of whom were white trash.

As he walked by, Adrian flashed Festus in front of me. He knew damn well that that was my gun and he just wanted to flaunt it in my face more.

"Keep your mouth shut."

"Got something to say to me beaner," Replied one of Adrian's goons.

"Want me to talk about that lovely accent of yours?" I asked sarcastically, causing Calypso to shake her head 'no' at me.

"Something wrong with my accent, boy." Adrian responded.

I remained silent in an attempt to ignore the, but he kept pushing. "You got a problem with my accent then you got a problem with Alabama. Now, what was it that you wanted to say to me fuck-wad?"

"How about you rednecks go back to your rusty pickups truck and fuck your cousins" I responded coldly as I could. That response earned a few disgusted glances from the people who overheard our conversation.

Adrian gave me a stern look, but he had no way to respond to that, so he gave me the evil eye then stormed off. As I looked at him go, I grinned. Calypso was not happy.

"You shouldn't have done that" she said

"The guy had it coming, calling me racial slurs and waving Festus in my face like that"

"Festus?" she asked

"The M4 the asshole's got around his shoulder, its mine. He stole it from me when he knocked me out."

"Why do you care so much about a gun?"

"That gun is my baby. It kept Hazel and me alive on 2 occasions. Granted, I'm a terrible shot, but still."

She just shook her head at me. "Look. People already don't like you."

"I noticed."

"And when you say shit like that" she continued in a stern manner, "it doesn't help."

"He instigated. I said that to shut him up."

"I know. People don't like him either; it's only his gang that he can control. However, he's kept the camp safe and people trust him a hell of a lot more than they do you."

"I know you're right Sunshine." I said,

She blushed a little and said, "You know I hate that nickname."

"Well I hate 'beaner', so we both just gotta deal with it."

She laughed and then we got back to work washing clothes. I was a shitty job, but I had to start somewhere to get these people to like me. It's not like they're going to hand me a gun any time soon.

Frank began to approach Calypso and me, Hazel in tow. People like Hazel a lot more than they like me. The fact that Frank and her are together immediately put her on their good side. Unfortunately, the same didn't happen for me

"What did Adrian say this time?" Hazel asked.

"The usual." Calypso responded. "I don't get why he hates Leo so much."

"He's from the south." I said. "Some people there are still fighting the Civil War. White power and all that bull."

"The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is why he gives me more shit than anyone else." I continued. "I mean, I'm not the only Latino here. We got a mix of all races in this camp. Pretty soon we'll be singing songs about how all races are wonderful in their own way."

I put enough sarcasm in that last statement to get a grin from Hazel and Calypso, but Frank didn't find it funny. He just looked at me wearily for the thousandth time that day. Seriously, what is Franks deal?

"And he hates all of it." Said Frank. "He doesn't do anything because he's outnumbered. The only reason he can do it to you is because people are still weary of you, so he can get away with it."

We talked for a while about things, but Hazel and Calypso got called off to do something, leaving me and Frank together.

"I need to ask you something" Frank said out of no where

"Ok then, shoot" I said, curious about what he was going to ask.

"Did, uh… did anything happen between you and Hazel after the herd."

"Like wha…" I began to respond, but I realized what he was asking. "Dude, did you really just ask that question"

He just kept looking at me, so I kept talking. "Hazels' like a sister to me. I'd be more inclined to get with you than her."

"Just had to be sure." Frank said after a moment of reading my face to see if I was lying.

Then something clicked. "Is this why you've been so weird to me recently?"

"I've been weird to you?" he asked

We were interrupted by a very loud whistle. I turned to see Thalia getting everyone's attention. She began to speak, "just keeping everyone informed. Phoebe and Luke's group are still in the city looking for supplies. However" she stuttered a moment, "we have not heard any word from them over the radio for a few days."

"In the event something happened," Thalia continued, interrupting everyone's murmuring, "we will send a small team to head to our third outpost, the ski lodge, in an attempt to find them. that is where they will go if they run into trouble"

"Why not send someone into the city" a voice said from the crowd.

"That's too dangerous. I told him not to go there, but the idiot did anyway."

She continued to answer a few questions, but she began to get frustrated with everyone asking her questions she didn't know the answer to, and just walked off. The amount of stress on that 22 year old is unbelievable. She's beginning to crack, or so I've heard.

People just kind of meandered, apparently pissed that Thalia just walked off. I heard their mutterings. I returned to Calypso, placed my hand around her waist and gave her a kiss.

She stumbled back, and then said, "What was that for?"

"I just love ya." I responded.

"Well, just wait for tonight, and I'll return the favor." Calypso said with a grin.

I almost fainted right there, but I just laughed it off in an attempt to remain looking cool, but Calypso could see through that. She laughed and I blushed a little, which made her giggle at me.

"Shut up, Sunshine." I said to her. as I picked her up by the waist while she laughed.

**A/N: sorry for the short chapter. I didn't have much to say and I just needed to set a few things up for later. The next chapter will be the usual length.**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Piper

After a few moments of silence, Jason and the other boy ran to each other. I thought fists were going to start flying, but they embraced in a 'bro hug,' which involved a lot of patting on the back and stunned laughter.

They separated and I got a better look at the blond that wasn't Jason. He was about an inch or so taller with a similar hair style. There was a scar on his face that went from his temple to his chin. They were definitely old friends, but Jason never spoke of him.

When they separated, the other blond, Luke I think, grabbed Jason on the shoulders and said, "Thalia's gunna flip her shit."

"Is she here?" Jason asked

"No, she's back at camp."

Jason separated from the other boy and, with hands on his head in exasperated joy said, "Holy fuck"

Timmy leaned over to me and asked, "Who's that?"

"I don't know. They must be old friends." I responded

Jason looked over to us and back to Luke, then waved us over. Timmy and I stood up and walked over. As we walked, Timmy grabbed my hand to get support, and I returned by grabbing his gently.

Jason put his arm around my shoulder and introduced me. "Luke, this is Piper and Timmy."

Luke reached out his hand and I shook it awkwardly. He looked at me and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I said. "It's just been a while since I've been introduced to someone like this."

Luke chuckled then looked down to Timmy. Luke crouched down to eye Timmy's eye level smiled warmly and asked, "How's it going little man?"

"What's wrong with your face?" Timmy asked pointing at Luke's scar.

"You're pretty quick to the point aren't you?" Luke said which caused Timmy to try and hide behind my leg.

I was about to step in to protect Timmy when Luke said, "I respect that." Followed by him putting out his hand for a fist bump. Timmy bumped fists with Luke then stood back smiled like Luke was the coolest person in the world.

I wasn't sure what to think of Luke at first glance, and the scar on his face didn't help, but I now I think he's a good guy. It was weird since Timmy took a lot longer to warm up to Jason and me.

"What's going on back at the Military Base?" Jason asked.

"We had to move." Luke said sadly. "Some guys in army gear showed up and uh…" Luke looked down at Timmy then back to Jason.

"This story might not be good for… sensitive ears." Luke said as he subtlety motioned toward Timmy. I looked at Jason. He desperately wanted to know what happened and I couldn't take it away from him, especially when I involved his sister.

I nudged Timmy and said, "Let's go check on Nico and Annabeth." Timmy complied and I started walking back towards the room where Nico was getting worked on. I turned around and gave Jason a reassuring look. He nodded in return, and then returned his attention to Luke.

The girl who rescued us, I think Phoebe was her name, was in the room with the 'doctor', Annabeth and Nico. I sat down next to her and she smiled at me. "You alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah." I responded. "Weird day."

She just nodded and returned her attention to back out the window. I looked out too and saw what she saw. A good sized group of zeds was forming around our area. They were obviously drawn in by the gunshots we fired earlier.

"I never thanked you." I began. "For getting that door open and rescuing us"

She shrugged and said, "It was nothing."

"Are you shitting me?" I said.

Phoebe looked at me in shock. She looked down to Timmy then back up. She must be surprised that I'm cussing right in front of a kid.

"He's heard and said worse." I said. "But seriously. Thank you. We'd be dead if it weren't for you."

"That's just what we do." She said.

"We must be seeing different people because I don't know anyone who would stick their neck out for us the way you guys did." I responded

I took a quick glance back over to Annabeth and the man who was helping Nico. Nico looked like he would be ok, but one can never be too sure.

"No. I mean us. Our group." She began to explain what they were like. Jason had told me a little, but never the full story and I never asked so it wasn't a big deal. Phoebe talked about how there were 35 people in the group, some new comers recently, where there camp was, what their supplies were like etc.

"Why do you trust me with this?" I asked.

She answered by shrugging. "Your obviously care about Jason. Jason, me, Luke, Thalia, basically the entire camp, go way back with him. I trust him, so I trust you. "

"But you could have died saving us, and you didn't even know we were with Jason, that was blind luck. Why save us." I questioned.

"You seem really skeptical of me"

"Sorry, just curious why."

"Maybe I'm just a good person. Maybe it's the foolish naive hope that if I was ever that far up shit creek someone would come and bail me out." **(TWD)**

That seemed like an honest answer, so I decided to stop questioning her. We simply began small talk. We talked for a few more minutes before Annabeth left Nico and came over to us.

"How's he doin" I asked

He'll make it. She replied. "He's in a lot of pain. Doc gave him some morphine to dull it."

"Gods, you guys are loaded." I said looking at Phoebe

She just shrugged and said, "We have a good system. What we do is…"

Jason walked in mid-sentence. He looked devastated, but was trying to cover it up by staying strong. He's too proud to look defeated.

Phoebe and Annabeth said 'hi' and he returned to hello. They clearly didn't see anything wrong with Jason, but I did. I can read Jason better than anyone, even himself sometimes. I sat down by him on the couch and put my head on his shoulder.

Phoebe and Annabeth were still talking about the groups system while I just comforted Jason. I said, "What happened?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Not now. Later."

I didn't want to push Jason so I just him relax. Whatever happened to his people must have been terrible. We sat with each other for a while when I noticed Nico began moving. It was just groans at first, but he began to toss and turn.

"There's no dog here" he mumbled. Annabeth and I looked at each other confused.

"What dog?" I asked. Everyone was really confused.

He kept mumbling random things until he finally, somewhat gained consciousness. "The doctors are funny."

The one who was treating Nico said, "he's having a morphine high. It will wear off soon."

"You're high." Nico said. I've heard about morphine high's before and I know that they can be quite hysterical.

"Why can't I see anything?" he asked. He sounded like he was sleep talking. His words were slurred and sloppy.

"Because your eyes are closed bud." Replied the doctor.

"Really" Nico said in shock. "That's cool" Nico still didn't open his eyes.

We stayed there for a while just listening to Nico saying the weirdest shit. I think I almost died Laughing. Even Annabeth managed a grin a few times. There were times he was just mumbling nonsense, but we still laughed.

"I feel l-like a bird's - eagle view. Everything's happening, like, up here" Nico said as he waved his arm in a weird direction. The rest of us just kept laughing

"Did he touch my butthole" Nico asked. I almost died right there. I tried to stop making so much noise, but I couldn't contain it. Jason managed to laugh, even though he was still hurting from whatever Luke had told him.

"I don't think so" said Annabeth

"Good," mumbled Nico, "because I haven't done that sense college."

Jason then said, "Dude, you're like 15. You've never been to college."

"Oh. Well that explains a lot." Nico mumbled. I decided to leave before I heard something really embarrassing.

I spent the rest of the day getting to know the people I was with. There were a few mechanics, a few soldiers (that what the people whose only skill is fighting call themselves), and a doctor. Jason was the leader of this expedition team, while he was only second in command to Thalia, Jason's sister.

Over time I learned that they had a main camp about 20 miles from the city in a small forest preserve. Since there is no a lot of supplies, they have set up 3 outposts: one in the city, where we are, one at an abandoned ski lodge and one in a suburban house. People were never at each outpost round the clock, but, whenever scavenging parties are sent, they went to one of these outposts to set up camp

That night, Jason took a spot on the floor. I grabbed a blanket and cuddled up next to him. Jason wrapped his arm around my waist and I huddled against him for warmth.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked

"Not really." He said with his eyes closed.

"It'll help." I said, which made Jason sigh. He began to tell me what Luke had told him. I'm going to summarize it as nicely as I can, since what he told me was horrifying.

Basically, he was in a group of about 60 people. Their camp was what remained of a Military camp. It had all sorts of weapons and a great set up for defense.

They had set up a working town and everyone did their part. Of course there were a few bad nuts, but overall their system worked. Thalia took control soon after Jason was lost. At first, Thalia was able took keep herself together, but overtime, she began to lose herself. The loss of Jason and the stress of leading such a large group were getting to her.

That, however, was nothing compared to when the Military goons showed up. I'm not sure if they were actually military, but they were savages just like everyone else. They butchered Jason's people to the point where only 20 made it out. Luckily, they had a designated place to meet if they were ever separated and the base was lost. They would recruit others into their society, just like before, but things are different now, based on what Luke had told him

I didn't know how to react so I just remained silent and supportive. After a while, Jason and I fell asleep on the hard wood floor.

The next morning people were packing up. They had spent all the time in the city that they needed to and had enough supplies to return home. Nico was awake and Annabeth was telling him about all the funny shit he said. I didn't know someone that Pale could turn so red.

After ten minutes of packing up, we began to make our decent to street level and walked ourselves out of the city with very few problems, which was surprising, since we were walking through a city with nine people in tow.

Once we were out of the City, it was only a 15 mile hike back to their camp. Nothing too bad, but everyone was carrying a lot of supplies, except Nico who could barely walk on his own. He was getting better, but still in some pain. Hopefully he would be better by the time we returned to the camp.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Nico

I was sure that I was going to die. If it wasn't the zeds or the people trying to kill me, it would be the ones who weren't. I was a loner for a good reason, I liked it. Other people are annoying as fuck. We were traveling only to meet up with more people, none of whom I know. The only person I trusted was Annabeth. She proved herself and I believe I did the same.

People may say, 'the more the merrier', safety in numbers, but I believe in the opposite. The more people, the more attention. More attention means more zeds. Or worse, people.

Hell, I've been conscious for maybe 20 minutes around Jason. He's seems like a decent enough guy, but those are the ones that bite you on the ass. I would wander off like I always do, but I can barely walk on my own. I'll stay with these people until I'm good. Then, back to what's kept me alive.

"You good Nico?" Annabeth asked.

"He's just worried about his asshole, that all." replied one of the people traveling in our group. That received a laugh from most everyone, except Annabeth, thankfully. I just kept my head down and stayed distant. I should have shoved a knife between his ribs. That will shut them up.

"He's just fucking with you." said Jason. He put his arm around my shoulder but I shrugged him off.

Jason made another attempt to talk to me, but I ignored him and remained silent. I constantly got weir looks. People would look at me and quickly look away as soon as I made eye contact with them. I kept falling behind until I was a good 10 feet away from the rest of the group.

Annabeth noticed and made her way back to me. She talked to me and I listened, but didn't talk, like usual. At a certain point, Annabeth became frustrated. "Gods. I feel like I'm talking to a mirror. Why don't you talk?"

I thought to myself. I knew why, but that wasn't a story I wanted to go into. Ever. So I just said "I got nothing to say."

"Why?"

I just shrugged my shoulders, which made her a little more upset. We picked up our pace and caught back up to the rest of the group. The rest of the painstakingly long trip went without a hitch, except for I moment when we were a mile out.

"Luke, Phoebe, come in." came a voice from one of the bags. "Anyone answer for fucks sake."

Phoebe reached into her bag and pulled out a radio. I was unaware that they had those. Phoebe pressed a button and said, "we read you. What's up?"

There was a scuffle over the other end, followed by a pissed of girls voice. She wasn't yelling, but her tone and fast words said enough. I could only make out a few words with the speed of her talking and static in the radio.

Luke simply held the radio away from his ear and let her finish her ranting. After the woman had finished her rant, Luke responded, "you good now Thals?"

After an angry sigh, the woman responded, "yes. Now what happened?"

"Our long distance radio is shot, metaphorically. Unsure about what happened. I'll get Valdez to look at it when I get back."

This caused Annabeth, Piper and Jason to look up in curiosity, but I didn't know why. "Find anything useful?" The lady on the other end of the radio asked.

Jason nudged Luke in an attempt to ask for the radio, but Luke held up his finger as if saying, '1 sec.'

"Not as much as we would have liked." He said, "rations are still gunna be tight. We got some guns, ammo, your brother, a few cans and clothes, which we desperately need."

I could hear the lady on the other line doing a double take. "Did you just say what I think you said?" she asked.

"yup." responded Luke. "Clothes are very important. I know how much you like that leather jacket, but it's torn to shit."

"Cut the shit." abruptly responded the woman. "You know what I meant."

Luke handed the radio to Jason. He looked at it for a moment, and then said, "Thalia?"

"Jason?"

After another moment of silence, and then Thalia came over the radio and said, "Luke, if your fucking with me, I will cut your eyes out and feed them to you."

Jason grinned and responded, "you haven't changed a bit. Yeah it's me."

"Prove it." She asked

"You are terrifying in a badass way."

"That's common knowledge"

"You have tattoo on your shoulder blade of Green Day's American Idiot album"

"Luke could have told you that"

After a very brief moment of thought, Jason responded, "I ate a stapler"

Once again, I could hear her shocked expression. "Luke, get his dumbass here now so I can beat the shit out of him."

Jason grabbed the Radio out of Jason's hand and said "yes Ma'am."

With that, we picked up the pace to reach camp as soon as possible. After a while, we reached a beaten path that lead off-road. After a few more minutes of walking, we ran into a man fully clothed in bullet protective armor and helmet.

He held his hand up, motioning us to stop. We all did. We were still a good distance away, so there was no way he could he could make out our faces.

"Epsilon." He shouted.

There was a moment of awkward silence as Luke looked to Phoebe, who just shrugged.

"Epsilon." The man shouted again, this time pulling up his gun.

Luke shouted, "What are you talking about Jack? Its Luke and Phoebe"

He fired at our feet. It caused us to jump back. "Respond to the damn call sign or I'll shoot you."

We were unsure of what to do. I was the only reasonable one who drew their gun and had it pointed at the man. However, that shot drew the attention of what I can only assume is Luke's group. A woman with black hair and a torn up leather jacket went up to him, punched him, and then waved us over.

Luke was the first one over. Everyone else hustled not far behind.

"Ok. What the fuck just happened?" Luke said, nostrils flaring.

"Adrian told us to use a call sign. He said everyone knew."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Said Thalia

The man then said, "the only way to know who we can trust is who knows our codes. They don't know, they can't be trusted. " He said it with just a hint of hate, towards everyone. It wouldn't have surprised me if he said 'Hail Hydra' immediately after.

I didn't know who he was talking about, but it looked like this Adrian guy was starting a cult within this group, exactly what I needed. This is why I avoid people, too much drama.

Luke realized what was going on. This guy Adrian tried to kill all of us. I didn't know that a guy like Luke could get so mad. He stormed into the camp. Everyone else just looked at each other. Thalia and Jason made brief eye contact. It was clear that they wanted to have a family moment, but there were more pressing matters.

Thalia quickly hustled over to see what Luke was going to do. I could hear Luke yelling from far away. "You're just looking for another reason to kill me aren't you asshole."

This might just be exciting. I jogged over with everyone else to see what all the commotion was.

"I don't know what you're talking about man." said another person. He must be Adrian. He was a few inches shorter than Luke and he looked skinny as hell. A swift breeze would knock him down. He had a southern accent that seemed to fit with his persona.

Luke lost it. "Telling your boys to put a bullet in me as soon as can, huh."

"I', just trying to keep y'all safe. That why you brought us here right, protection?"

"Protection my fucking ass" said Luke as he aggressively shoved Adrian. Some more people stepped in holding them back, trying to prevent a fight. I stood off to the side and just watched. _This is exciting_, I thought to myself.

There were more threats made and a few fists thrown, but eventually, the two were separated.

I chuckled to myself. Maybe this place wasn't so bad after all. I mean, stayed with people who were much more violent for longer than I planned to stay here.

After the dust settled, Jason and his sister were able to have their moment. Other people gave him a pat on the back and a hand shake as they passed. They must have been with him before the army guys attacked their camp.

Just because I seem like I don't pay attention doesn't me I don't. I have ears and I can't turn them off as much as I wish I could. So, yeah. I wound up hearing Jason's story

I didn't stay and watch. That tender loving stuff really wasn't up my alley. I looked back to Annabeth to see what she was doing, but she was having what looked like a reunion with a big Asian fellow and a Latino boy.

Piper and Timmy were walking up behind Annabeth when Piper ran up and hugged the Latino boy like they were good friends. Once again, I looked away. I didn't want to see a big happy family.

It made me miss Bianca.

I immediately shoved that thought away. So I wound up hanging out by the edge of the camp. I faced away from everyone else and looked into the woods. I only saw the occasional rabbit hop by. Rabbits are assholes. They just jump around, not giving two shits that the world had ended around them

Even worse, they are annoying to catch. People need food and rabbits are a good, quick source of meat. And when I say quick, I mean they are fast as shit. I will either take 2 seconds to catch one or a half hour.

I pulled out my knife and threw it up to myself. I caught the tip of the blade with the end of my fingers. I threw it back up and caught the blade again. This is what I do to pass time. Now that there are no more cellphone for me to listen to my music, I need something to keep my mind occupied.

Most people occupy their mind by daydreaming, singing or writing stories. I occupied my mind by learning to throw knifes. It's a useful tactic. The only hard part is getting the blade to stick in your target.

I heard footsteps behind me, which caused me to catch my knife and not throw it back up again. The person knew I noticed him, so I asked, "What do you want."

"Nico" said a girl. I could hear her body trembling out of nerves. It obviously wasn't Annabeth. She is never so nervous to say anything. "Who is it?" I asked as I began tossing my knife again. Whoever this was terrified, which was good.

"Hazel." She responded. My knife fell to the ground. After refusing to move for a second, I turned and saw her, and it was her. Dark skin, frizzy hair. She had grown since I last saw her a year ago. She must be fifteen by now. Or sixteen. I didn't know her age.

I slowly stood up and faced her. All I knew is that I was an asshole to her before the world ended, and she will either slap me or run away like she did before. She did neither. She ran at me and gave me a hug. After a moment of stunned silence, I put my hand on her back and returned the hug.

I may not have liked her and she may have been terrified by me, but family is family. "How did you know I was here" I asked her as we separated.

"Annabeth told me." She said. I had almost forgotten that Annabeth knew Hazel. We talked for a little while longer before hazel practically forced me into the camp to speak to everyone. They looked at me with pity, which confused me.

"Why is everyone looking at me like that?" I asked her

"They're just worried about your health. Annabeth told me you were stabbed through the side and almost died. "

"They don't need to worry about me." I said.

Hazel just nodded as she guided me back to Annabeth and Jason. There were a few others that were sitting there. Piper, Timmy and Thalia I recognized, but everyone else was foreign to me.

"About time you joined us." said Jason as he patted the spot next to him, offering me a place to sit. I had no other choice, so I accepted.

"Everyone, this is Nico." said Annabeth. I received a few nods, waves and hi's, which I returned by nodding.

"Nico, this is Thalia, Frank, Leo and Calypso." Annabeth continued as she pointed to everyone individually. "You've already met Piper, Jason Luke and Timmy, right?"

"yeah." I responded

After introductions were finished, the group began to talk as if they were old friends, which, apparently, they were.

Evening turned into night as everyone had dinner, which wasn't a lot of food. our little group continued talking, but I kept my mouth shut and head down. I listened, but I wasn't paying too close of attention.

"Alright Jason this is killing Me." said Annabeth, which caught my attention. "What did you mean when you said, 'I ate a stapler?' "

"I was afraid this would come up." said Jason, who looked down in shame. Thalia was grinning like a madman.

It took Jason a minute to talk. It also took the encouraging to the Latino boy, Leo. "Tell us about the stapler." He half shouted.

"Alright, alright." Jason said, giving up. "I was maybe three at the time. And, as all of us have done, I was notorious for putting things in my mouth. Stapler's happen to have a lot of vitamins and minerals, which everyone is clamoring for at that age."

"Of course." said Frank

"Anyway, my Thalia's a dirt bag, which all of you should know. I mean she is barely giving us any food. We might as well be eating a plate of dicks."

"Shut it" said Thalia

"This stapler story took a weird turn." said Leo which caused a lot of laughter.

"So anyway, uh." said Jason as he took another bite of food

"Get on with it." Leo said as his frustration was clearly rising.

"Well I don't have the Spanish advantage of making up words and expecting people to know what they are."

This confused me, but I'm sure that there is some inside joke that he is hinting at. **(For those of you that don't get what I'm saying, it's a Rooster Teeth reference. Geoff's banana story.)**

"So, Thalia was notorious for leaving stuff on the floor for me to get at. No matter how many times mom would tell her to stop, she would always be leaving and throwing stuff with woeful abandon."

"Good word choice." Said Annabeth

"Thank you. So, uh, it was a huge nuisance that Thalia would leave stuff around."

"Is this story still going on" asked Calypso, which caused a grin from most people, even Jason.

"The final straw for her was when she left a stapler on the ground. I, being a three year old little kid, put the stapler in my mouth and bit into it. The stapler went off in my mouth and a staple attached itself to my lip."

People began to laugh. "He still has the scar." laughed Thalia as she pointed to his lip.

"I thought you said it was a knife that did that." Piper said

"Well a knife sounded more badass than a stapler." Jason argued.

Things began to die sown and people began to go off to bed. Leo and Calypso were the first, for obvious reasons. Timmy had fallen asleep on Piper's lap. Other people by other fires were going to bed too. There was a night watch for the people so that they could sleep peacefully.

We talked for a while longer, when the conversation suddenly turned to me.

"Nico, why don't you talk." Asked Jason

"I got nothing to say" I replied.

"Well," he continued, "Hazel here has told us a little bit about you."

I nodded. This is the part where people begin to turn on me. It was clear that I couldn't stay here for long.

"You kept her alive at the beginning." said Frank. "Thank you."

I nodded in response. "She's family. That's what we do."

"Why don't you tell us your story." said Luke

"It's not one I like to tell" I said.

"Well everyone else has talked about themselves, why don't you." said Piper Encouragingly

I tried to say no, but they kept insisting and I eventually broke.

"Well, Hazel is my half-sister. I had another sister, Bianca. It was just the three of us when it all started. I hated Hazel. I thought that she ruined my family, even though it was dad's fault for having the affair. We were taken by these people." my eyes watered a little, but I didn't cry. It felt surprisingly good to talk it out.

"I'm not going to go into what happened, but Bianca didn't make it out, and the people who took us were dead." a few nods were the response I got. I wasn't sure if they were good or bad nods.

"Hazel left me, which was the right call. After Bianca died, I lost it. I got in with the wrong people and did some things I'm not proud of. I can't imagine what would have happened if she was with me at this time."

"We've all done things we're not proud of." Said Luke

"No." I said bluntly. "You think you have. A decent guy like you wouldn't be able to do the things I've done."

"We've all done bad things." said Jason, trying to comfort me.

"Have you ever slit a five year old girls throat right in front of her mother to get a half empty canteen of water?" I asked the group. "And that's just the tip of the iceberg."

All I received was stunned silence. This is why I don't talk. I say too much ad it leads to people distrusting me. I didn't know what to expect, so I just kept telling my story.

"Eventually, I was alone. People around me always die. It was when I was alone that I got time to think. I still hate myself for what I've done. A lot of nights, I put the barrel of a gun in my mouth, but… I can't find the courage to pull the trigger."

Hazel put her hand on my back and rubbed it. It was the only comfort I got. It was more than I was used to and more than I needed. I need to be sure to thank her later.

"I've been trying to do better. I'm done hurting those that don't deserve it. I know I'm going to hell, but I hope that at least I'll be remembered as more than a sociopathic killer. My first random act of kindness was helping Annabeth. And, uh, here I am."

After that shocking reveal, no one said a thing. People simply said their goodnights and walked back to their tents. Eventually, I lay down in the dirt. I stared up at the stars for a while, just thinking. These people would not allow me to stay with them. They'll either kill me or kick me out. I wouldn't give them the chance.

I packed what few things I could and decided to leave. I made it about 2 minutes before someone stopped me.

"Where you going?" asked a voice behind me.

I turned to see Jason about ten feet from me. He didn't look threatening or mad; he just looked at me like he was concerned.

I didn't say anything. I just looked at him. He took a few steps forward and I stepped back. Eventually, he was right in front of me. He stood several inches over me and looked concerned about me. I don't know why but the look reminded me of the one Bianca used to give me.

"What are doing" he finally asked.

I sighed and said, "I don't know."

After that, I let him guide me back to camp.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Annabeth

I woke up the same way I had for the past few weeks, cold, in a tent, and alone. Its days like this that make me miss Percy even more. The winter we spent together was hell, but he kept me warm.

I sat up and threw my arms behind my head to stretch. Sleeping in this tent without any pillows was extremely uncomfortable. I slowly got up, put my jacket on and opened my tent. The camp was silent. I was the first person up, just like always.

I looked around at how the camp has changed since I came. We ran out of tents, so people started sleeping on the ground. Every week, we rotated who got a tent, and who had to sleep outside. We had about 40 people in our camp, which has made food a very scarce commodity.

People are down to two meals a day, however, the meals are more like snacks. Luckily, we didn't live to far from a river, so water wasn't a problem.

The Leaves were beginning to turn red and yellow, the birds haven't been chirping, and it has been getting cold. Winter is coming.

Thalia has started stopped people from building the fence, and began having them chop down trees for firewood. We also were going to need to search new places. I've been looking at maps and there's a Big Spot that they have marked, but it hasn't been crossed out (they cross off a place once it's been searched).

I've been trying to convince Thalia to send me and a few others to loot the place, but she says it too far away from any of their current outposts to risk it. She also said that it's completely infested with zeds. I guess a lot of people had the idea to go there when things started to go bad.

Still, I think we need to risk it. I was sharpening my knife when Piper walked out of her tent.

"How long have you been out here?" she asked me.

I looked up at the sky. After seeing how far the sun had moved, I said, "an hour or so."

She sat down next to me. "You need to sleep more."

"I can't."

"Try"

"No, I mean I physically can't. I have tried, but with the cold and since I'm used to sleeping maybe a few minutes at a time on the road, it's a very hard habit to break."

Piper shrugged and then said, "wanna talk about it?"

"About what?" I asked, but I had a feeling where she was going.

She looked me in the eye and said, "Percy"

"I'm over it" I said immediately

"You don't seem like it." Piper argued, "You mope around and every time someone has a cute relationship-y moment, you shy away."

"Relationship-y is not a word"

"Sue me."

Piper kept looking at me. I knew she wouldn't give up this topic, but luckily, other people were beginning to wake up. I knew Piper wouldn't make me have a moment in front of other people. She put one arm around my shoulder and gave a quick squeeze before walking away.

A few moments later, Thalia called me over to talk. She seemed nervous as I trotted over to her. I got to her and asked, "Sup?"

"I need you to take a group over to the big spot." Thalia said bluntly.

This surprised me. In the short time I've known Thalia; she never changed her mind about anything. She is very stubborn that way. I asked her, "I thought you said it was useless?"

"I know what I said, but we need a big food boost. Increase rations. Something to boost morale."

"Ok then. But we can't carry everything over our shoulders, and it's a half a day trip from your nearest outpost. " I said.

"I know. Take a group with you. Valdez was able to fix a few up. They'll get you where you need to go."

"That's the first good thing you've said about Leo yet." I said to her.

"And let's hope it's not the last." She responded. "He's a good mechanic and, hell, I'm warming up the kid."

"Good to hear" I said. I walked away to see who would go with me. The group I wound up with was me, Jason, Leo, Piper and two others. Piper, Jason and I Jason took one car, and the other three snagged a pickup truck.

Jason and Thalia hugged as we left. "Don't go disappearing on me again dumbass."

"Yes mom" Jason replied sarcastically. With that, we set out. It was half a day trip by car. The plan was to get to the Big Spot in the afternoon, loot it, and then find a place to spend the night. We make the trip home at first light.

While in the car, there almost all silence. We were talking to the other car via walkie talkie to make sure everything was alright, but other than that, we were mostly silent. Piper and Jason talked while I drove.

Driving was the only time I got the opportunity to really see the world as it was. Whenever I'm walking, I usually am too busy trying to avoid zeds that I never get to take a moment and really look at the area around me.

The roads had grass and other foliage growing out of it. Pretty soon, we will need another type of transportation. I would think horses, but there aren't any in New England, except for maybe race horses, but they are probably all dead now.

The wildlife in the area was thriving thanks to no human contact, like pollution. All the trees and even the sky were becoming more brightly colored and beautiful. At night, the stars are more brilliant than you can imagine.

Because there is no light pollution, every star is a thousand times brighter than before. Shooting stars are so common that it's no longer rare to see them. My thoughts were interrupted by a spray of blood on the windshield.

I slammed on the breaks and was almost rear-ended by the pickup behind me. Once I caught my breath, I asked Jason and Piper if they were ok.

"All good," responded Piper.

"What the hell was that," cried a voice on the radio.

I picked up my end and said, "I hit something and I freaked me out."

"Nice" responded the voice; I could only assume belonged to Leo

"Give me a second to clean of the windshield."

"Well hurry up darling, we don't got all day." That was definitely Scott, one of the other men with Leo in his car. Scott was a nice guy, late twenties, rugged dirty blond hair. He was a little weird, but he is still a nice guy. His Brother David looked almost identical, but there were a few years between the two. I never cared to ask.

I got out of the car and looked at the damage to the hood. It was a little wrinkled from the force of the impact and was covered in blood. I then saw a carcass of a person; only the person was still moaning and groaning.

I hit a zed with my car. That would be a funny story to tell. I stuck my knife into what remained of its head and threw it to the ground. I then proceeded to wipe the heavy chunks of blood and guts from the windshield. It smelled like someone threw up on the car and then left it out in the hot sun.

Gross analogy I know, but when you haven't even been able to shower in a year and a half, you get used to things that smell terrible. I then pulled out my canteen of water and washed most of it off my hands. I returned to the car and sent the windshield wipers to do the rest. Finally, I was able to get driving again.

By midafternoon, we made it to the gigantic store. Everyone got out of the cars and took a look. The building was in terrible shape and it looked like it would collapse at any moment. We needed to get in and get out quickly.

The number of zeds in the store was greatly exaggerated. Maybe twenty or thirty were visible, and there was, most likely, ten that I didn't see. Now, that may seem like a lot, but we have a system for dealing with a high number of infected.

We form up into a semi-circle, make some noise on the outside to draw them out, and then let them come at us and take them down one by one.

"Everyone good with the plan?" I asked

"Why don't we just go in all sneakily and only have to take some out?" asked Scott.

"Because then zeds can attack us from behind and, if I person makes a noise, everyone is screwed. This is the safest way."

"You're the boss," replied Leo, somewhat sarcastically

"Just get ready" I said.

While everyone got into positions, I walked up to the big window in front of the store and banged really hard on it several times with the butt of my gun, which drew the attention of every zed in the place.

I banged a few more times, for good measure, and jogged back to the group. I took a minute, but eventually, the zeds came out. Everyone had their weapons in hand; I had a foot long knife; Jason, a short sword; Leo, a machete with a red handle, Piper and the others had simple knifes.

They started coming one by one, Jason and I up front to start, the rest covering our sides so no stragglers get us. After about thirty seconds, I began to fatigue. I yelled, "Rotate." Jason and I stepped back into the circle, and the two behind us, Scott and David took our place upfront. Jason and I then took spots at the end of semi-circle.

Once the main group was gone, Leo and Piper took out the remaining stragglers while the rest of us caught our breath. Finally, we entered the Big Spot.

And I thought outside the store looked bad. On the inside, there were several splatters on the ground of what were human bodies, but were destroyed by zeds. The interior walls looked like they would collapse if I shouted too loudly.

"Groups of two." I said. "Keep an eye out, there could still be a few zeds lurking around."

"Yes ma'am" said Leo. I shot him a look, but he already had his back to me and was searching the aisle closest to us. I followed him 1) because we needed to stay in groups of two and 2) I wanted to kick his ass.

I didn't stick around to see what the other two groups were, but I knew what they would be, Piper and Jason, David and Scott.

As we walked, Leo spotted a shopping cart that we could use to carry what we found. Granted, it only had three wheels and didn't make Left turns very easily. We searched for a long time. The place was huge and it took a lot of time to search every corner for anything

We were on our final run through when shit began to go down. Leo was helping me up to one of the higher shelves. I stepped on his hands and he pushed me up by my foot.

As soon as my hand grasped the shelf, it collapsed, causing me to fall off. Leo caught me and we fell to the floor together. "thanks." I said.

"Don't mention it" was Leo's reply. As soon as we stood up, the whole shelf began to fall right into the one next to it, and that one fell and the one after like one great big set of dominoes. I could tell what was going to happen. The giant shelves would take out one of the already cracked walls.

This whole place would crumble to the ground.

I grabbed Leo and began pulling him along with me out of the building. We weren't fast enough. The place began to crumble just before we were at the entrance. Leo fell to the ground and had his leg crushed by a falling rock.

He yelled in pain. I immediately turned back, pushed the rock off his leg and half carried half dragged him out of the concrete warehouse before we were trapped in it for good. Leo and I fell to the ground just beyond the rubble.

We both were gasping for air. Leo coughed and spit some dust out of his mouth. I did the same.

"Thanks" Leo Gasped

"Don't … Mention… It" was my response.

I turned and saw Jason and Piper running towards us. I slowly got to my feet, only to collapse again. Piper helped me to my feet, and dragged me back to a car, which Scott and David were pulling around. Once I sat down, I turned to see Jason pulling Leo. I heard shouts and gunshot.

Only then did I feel dazed and a sharp pain in my head. Once they got Leo in the other car. We took off.

"What happened," I asked

"shh don't talk Annabeth." replied Piper. "You were hit on the head by a falling rock. Just stay down and…"

That was all I heard, because the next thing I knew, I was awake on a couch and the sun was rising. I sat up groggily and looked at my surroundings. I was in a living room. There was a blank TV, which is not surprising, what remained of a wooden coffee table and Piper, who was napping on a chair beside me.

I began to sit up. I put my head in my hands. I felt like I was going to throw up. Only then, I felt a bandage wrapped around it. Piper's eyes opened and she immediately told me to sit down. I refused. I tried to walk, and failed.

Piper helped me up and laid me back down on the couch. I asked what happened and she filled me in.

"We were in a hurry because the sound of the collapse drew zeds. We barely got you and Leo out."

"How is he?" I asked.

"He's ok." She responded. "A broken foot, which will be hard to heal. It's the same leg he was shot in before. You know, the reason he has that slight limp."

I remembered the farm. I took his girlfriend hostage there.

"So we drove here, the neighborhood we planned to spend the night. This house had one, unexpected visitor."

This interested me. "What was it?"

"Who was it?" Piper corrected me. "A little girl. She hasn't said much. Jason could better fill you in on what happened. "

"Give me the summary." I said impatiently.

"Well" Piper continued, "She was in here alone, crying. I'm not sure if it was from pain or fear or maybe she just lost someone, but it wasn't good. When we first made our presence known, she nearly stabbed Jason. Luckily, he intercepted the girls arm before the knife hit anyone."

"Anyway, she has calmed down, but she still doesn't trust us but I'm breaking down her walls. I'm good at that."She really was. However she ended up, I know she would make a great mom.

"Where is she?" I asked

"Upstairs. Jason is helping her out with a map. She wants to go find her friend who she got separated from."

I continued questioning. "What do you know about her?"

"Her name is Sarah. She was traveling with an older boy. She said he looked about our age, give or take. She is tough as nails. Kinda reminds me of you. Long-ish blond hair that is crudely cut."

"What about the guy she was traveling with."

"Percy." Responded a voice from behind a wall. "Sorry, I was listening." The name caught my attention.

"Why were you listening to us?" Piper asked.

"Just some advice that I received. Listen to people's conversations to determine if they are good"

"He sounds smart." I said inquisitively. "What was he like, Percy." The name caught on my tongue. If it was really him, I needed to know.

"Annabeth." Piper snapped before Sarah could respond. "Sarah could you give us a moment."

"Sure." She said as she ducked out of the room

"And not listen this time." Piper continued. The sound of footsteps walking away was her response.

"The fuck Piper" I said, wanting to punch her

"Percy, Your Percy, is dead. You told me that yourself."

"I mean, I didn't see him die. What if that is him."

"It's not. The only thing you're doing is giving yourself false hope." She said.

"About what?" Said Jason as he rounded the corner of the living room. Piper gave him the brief rundown about what happened. He looked at us for a moment, and then said, "I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole."

"Sit your ass down and help me convince her it's not good." Piper demanded

"It's really not my area of expertise" replied Jason. "Leo might be better suited for this topic."

Piper just glared at him. Jason reluctantly sat down, but remained quiet as Piper kept trying to convince me to let it go. I told myself I had, but I still loved Percy more than I can imagine. Even the idea of him is more comforting than anything else.

I kept telling myself and others that I was over him, but I'm not and I never will be. I don't care if I'm giving myself false hope; I need something to keep me going. There is no point to surviving this nightmare if there is no hope at a happy ending. Percy was that.

_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK._

There was a knock at the door.

The world went silent. I knew Leo, Steve and David were in the house, so who could have been knocking. Jason slowly stood up and crept toward the door, Pistol drawn. Piper and I did likewise.

Jason looked through the peephole in the door. He stared for a second. He bowed his head and was making a noise. Was he chuckling?

Jason looked me dead in the eyes and said, "It's for you."

**A/N: Sorry for yet another long gap. School has been sticking it's dick in me really hard recently. I'll work on getting the chapters out more often. I have an end in sight, but it will be a while. **


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Percy

I saw everything in slow motion. I looked over to Sarah, and she looked back. We gave each other a slight nod. We knew the plan, we've gone over it so many times, but I was always afraid that it wouldn't be enough. Well, today was the day we find out if it works.

I kicked the guy behind me in the knee cap. There was a loud crack and a shout of pain. I had no time to see if Sarah did her part. I hopped up to my feet and pulled the machete from the goon's belt and quickly head butted him, knocking him out. I then used his body as a shield for the incoming flurry of bullets, but it never came.

It gave me just enough time to get behind a brick wall. The shots stopped, but I couldn't. I crouched down and vaulted over the wall, since it was only a few feet high. I flew feet first into a man's chest, but and, attempted to knock over the woman, but she kicked me in the head as I landed, stunning me.

Before I could regain my composure, I caught a glimpse of a shiny objet. It was a knife coming right toward me.

"STOP" I heard the man yell. She almost didn't, but she stopped about an inch from my eye. She held it there for a moment. I didn't move. If I did, it would be over for me.

"That's not who we are" said the man, gasping for air. I must have landed a good kick because he got the wind knocked out of him.

"Who the hell do you think we are" replied the woman as she took a step back from me. "you don't know me"

"We've been together since the beginning. I know you"

The argument began to get really heated. I had no clue what was happening, but I was glad it did happen. I would be dead otherwise.

"He broke Jack's knee" said the woman

"In self-defense," I said, but I was unfortunately cut off by her menacing glare. I put my hands up in surrender, but never let my guard down. They argued for a while, and I just sat on the ground awkwardly.

I understood a little bit of the situation, but not all of it. They were together for a long time. They've lost a lot of people and she was on the brink of insanity.

I used this time to look for Sarah. I didn't see her. Thank the Gods. I didn't know if she would run, like I told her to, of try to come back and try save me.

I raised my hand, trying to tell them that I had a question, like in school. The man looked at me and asked, "What do you want stumpy?"

"Um… can I, like, go or are you holding me hostage." They looked at me as if I was an idiot. "I'm ok with whatever, but I'm just a little confused and I want to know if I can go find my friend."

After a momentary pause, the man said, "yeah, fine. go"

"Awesome." I said as I stood up. "I'd like to thank you for these exciting few minutes. And uh… yeah. I like you guys."

They stared at me, and the woman asked, "Are you retarded or something"

"I get it." I said, hands held up in defeat. "I'm out of here"

I walked away, but kept my eyes on them. They were good people, but you can never be too sure.

Once I was a good distance away from that lovely experience, I began looking for Sarah. I remember telling her the best place to be is in a suburb because there were lots of houses not searched yet it was the best place to look. Eventually, I found a map of the outlying area. It would take a while to find her, maybe a few hours

Boy was I wrong. The next two days were the hell for me. I knew she got away, but I had no clue where she was, who she was with or anything.

I searched the outlying area for her. I was almost done with a full sweep when I saw something odd, the ruined remains of a large, concrete building. I remember passing it on the way to… wherever, but this struck me as odd.

I saw faint tire tracks heading up the road, a large pile of dead zeds and blood on the ground. The blood looked at least a day old, but that's hard to tell. I didn't have time inspect it since zeds were swarming the area. I decided to follow the tracks since that is what Sarah probably did.

I followed the direction the tracks were heading. They didn't tell me where the car was, but it pointed me to a neighborhood. I looked in a few houses, but I couldn't find her. I began to really lose my mind at this point. What if I didn't find her! I know she can survive on her own for a while, but there were still some creepy and dangerous people out there.

Then I approached something strange. There was a red pickup truck almost fully loaded with supplies. I havn't seen that much food since before everything happened. Whoever the owner of that truck was part of a large group. Maybe 15-ish people.

I approached the house it was parked in and peered inside. I could only get a look at the top floor as the bottom floor windows were covered. What I saw blew my mind.

It was Jason. That son of a bitch made it out alive. He was talking to someone who I couldn't see. The other person was either sitting down or a lot shorter than him because he was looking slightly down as he talked. He then turned around, showing someone something of a desk. I couldn't see who it was, but a flash of short blond hair gave me the feeling that it was Sarah.

I sneaked around to the front of the house to try to see inside. There was only one window that I could see through. I had to crouch slightly and wipe of a layer of grime with my shirt sleeve. I saw piper talking to someone. I had a feeling Jason wouldn't leave without her.

I adjusted slightly to try and get a view of who Pipes was talking to, but I could only see a mess of blond hair lying on the couch. At first, I thought it was Sarah, but then I remembered the blond upstairs (not Jason). Besides, she definitely looked older, maybe late teens early twenties.

Was it possible? Did Piper and Jason find Annabeth after the herd? Just then, Sarah walked into the room. I smiled and sighed of relief for a moment. Then my world turned upside down. The person lying on the couch was Annabeth.

I was about to smash through the window and hug them both, but I realized that I would probably get shot or stabbed before any of the realized it was me. I fell to my knees and rubbed my eyes. My heart was bursting from my chest.

When I finally looked back through the window, Jason was in the room talking with them. I knew there was only one way I could get in the house without getting shot.

I stood up, walked over to the door and took a deep breath. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, but I never thought it would happen. Annabeth and I were about to see each other again.

I hit my fist against the door three times. The voices stopped instantly. There was a long pause before I heard Jason's muffled voice at the door. He opened it slowly until the room could see me.

As I slowly walked in, Jason gave me a pat on the back and his "handsome guy" grin. Piper looked at me and I could tell she was thinking, 'da fuck'. Annabeth stood up and walked over to me, never taking her eyes off my dirty, scarred and smiling face. I stepped forward too. I had my arms out for a hug, but, instead, I received a slap.

I kept my head facing the direction of the slap, and slowly turned back to face, totally and utterly confused. The whole time, she never took her eyes off me. it was clear the shock hadn't worn off yet.

"Sorry." Annabeth said. "I just had to make sure you were real."

"That makes sense." I responded, and received another slap.

"What the fuck happened to you" Annabeth half shouted, preceded by another slap.

"I was…" _slap_

"Why the fuck didn't you try to find me sooner?" Annabeth shouted again

"I looked but," _slap_.

Out of nowhere, she hugged me, or tackled me. I wasn't sure which. Once we were on the ground, she got on top of me and I was met with a barrage of kisses. I put my hand on her back and kissed back.

It was, honest to the gods, the best damn reunion I could have asked for. When we separated, Annabeth looked at me with her grey eyes fiercely. I wasn't sure if I was about to receive another slap or kiss. I would have preferred the latter.

In the moment of silence, I asked, "so can I talk now, or…?"

She smiled and said, "Yes. First off, what happened to your hand?"

I just realized that my stump was trying to get its non-existent fingers tangled in her hair.

"Oh, yeah. Funny story. I cut it off." I said bluntly.

"Why?" she asked, still on top of me, her hair dangling down her face and tickling me slightly.

"Well I was bitten there, so I had three choices. A) Let it consume me and turn, B) kill myself so I don't turn, or C) cut it off and possibly live. I went with that one."

Annabeth didn't take her eyes of it the whole time I was talking. Finally, she got up and then helped me up. I just remembered that Jason and Piper are in the room with us.

Once I stood back up, Piper gave me a quick hug, and Jason said, "man, we just can't get rid of you can we."

"Not a chance." I responded with a slight chuckle. Now that the main shock was over, I asked them, "Is there a little girl here? Name is Sarah, short blond hair?"

Piper nodded and said, "She's upstairs right now. How do you two know each other?" Piper began leading me upstairs. Annabeth followed very closely, as did Jason

"Her father saved my life. He patched up my stump when I was unconscious." I told them. "I've been taking care of her since then."

"What happened to the dad?" Jason asked, but before I could respond, Sarah walked out of the room she was in; she stopped for a moment, and then ran to me. I knelt down and gave her a hug as she collided into me.

"I'm glad you're not dead." she said quickly

"Me too."

"So you were causing all the commotion down stairs." Sarah said.

"Yup. You just so happened to run into some old friends of mine." I said with a grin.

Jason went into another room and dragged out Leo, whose foot was wrapped up as if it was broken or just hurt badly. He looked at me and said, "You're alive? Dude, I'd shake your hand if still had it."

"You know, he still has his right hand, normally, that's the one you're supposed to shake with." Annabeth said.

"Eh. He's all the way over there and I can't move very quickly, so I'll just settle for a high five later." Leo said

"I wouldn't have expected anything else." I said.

I met 2 new guys who were with the old gang. Everyone told me about their camp: 40 people, tents and fire pits, most of a wall built and how they ran security. It seemed like a good area . Jason told me about his sister and how she ran the whole operation.

Everyone piled into the two cars that they had, and it was a tight squeeze. Sarah had to sit on my lap and they had to move Leo to the trunk because there was no room for anyone else. The pickup was full of supplies and there were only two seats that were taken up by the brothers. Leo was ok with it since it gave him more room for his leg.

The whole ride back, everyone was catching up. Annabeth told me about her run in with Nico and her exciting trip to the city, Jason and Piper recounted their tale with Timmy, and I told them about Sarah's father, my hand and our adventures. I say that like it was all happy, but they were all sad stories.

The whole ride to the new camp, Annabeth kept her head on my shoulder. I had one arm around her and the other around Sarah. Sarah and Annabeth got to talking, but it quickly turned into them making fun of me and telling some of the stories about the stupid shit I've done (and there were plenty).

I still haven't gotten over the shock of seeing them all again, but I found myself telling inside jokes, chatting and planning, just like we used to. Everyone told me about how Frank, Hazel and Calypso were all back at the camp. I'm pretty surprised that everyone lived.

Once we were about a mile from the camp, the engine shuddered and died. Jason hit his hands against the steering wheel and said, "Out of gas."

The other car pulled up alongside us and rolled the window down. One of them asked, "What's up?"

"The tank is empty." Replied Jason.

"That sucks for you. But we can't fit everyone in the truck."

Jason thought about this for a second, and then said, "Just take Leo since he can't move. The rest of us will walk."

"Alright-y then." He replied. Jason and I helped load Leo into the car. They drove off and left the five of us to walk. I began to grow dark when we made it to the camp.

Unfortunately, there was gunfire and yelling coming from the camp. Jason sprinted over, weapon drawn and ready to kill. I followed along, as did Annabeth. Piper stayed behind to protect Sarah.

I was the first one to get there, Jason was only a second behind me, and couldn't warn me about the fist that knocked me to the ground. Jason tried to shoot, but the other guy was to quick on the draw. He shot Jason through the side. He collapsed on the ground in pain.

The man who shot Jason grabbed me be my hair and forced me to look at me.

"Well hi there. You must be new around here, so allow me to introduce myself." The man said with a cocky grin that showed he didn't give a shit about anyone.

"I'm Adrian. Nice to meet you."

**Hello everyone. I have a question to ask you. The next chapter will end the current plot arc. I have an idea for another one but I must warn you, it is not happy, it is not fun, and it may very well destroy you. I can end it either way, I am okay with it. Just let me know if you want me to continue or begin a new fic. I have a few ideas. Less violent though**


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